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slavehoudinct not sinful. 

O^hr llimi^hn^fnt of 'i^lau's ??i]i 

ITS REMEDY. 
VllK OOSIM:I. <>!' < I I IMS I. 



^N 4»Ol'MKVT PiroBK T«S OtYKAAL tTVOO Of Tftt 

KiroMMO runvuikm orrrii ciirarn. 

OCTOnCA, 1 " ' 

B\ ^VMI I I i:. \H)\\ . I), n. 



(lfr>a««(rt wtirvtov 



Jiijj; • M\V\ ^i-ni-tt- 



; nauarmri nam, nzw •»ria«nc«. 

186d. 



Entered occordiu^' to Act ol CoukTv.-.-, \u iLo >w»r I- •*', :»> 

HENRY K. HOW, 

In the Clerk'B Office of tbo District Court of tlie luiU-U 8t«lv*, fvt tbr 

Southern Dbtrict of New- York 



A R FT. A 'T' I ( » N 

• r CtUCVUgJAKCIM TIIAT CAIXID FORTH THE FOLtOWiyc 

.A. X3 X3 XX B fli S . 



Ijik Auuiorof the (>>'. ■ .vMr»>- t- t* .• Gon- 

cral Svnod of ihc Hcfi»nncU iVou^uni Uutcb Church 
ol North America, ' -••r to KlaUs : ihnl at the 

mooting of ibo Syntxi lu Um \^iiy of New- Brunswick 
in Juno lust, **a coromt: 'i wai rcccivcxi from 

the North Carolina ClflflUA ui : ** ' l 

' "iurch, |iur|>orling to be a ocr:i:;cU ojyy ol Ucir 
uciion in n ' * to seeking an coclcriastica) con- 

nection with iiic itcformc*! Protr>stant Dutch Church, 
which wna referred to the CommitUMS on Correspond- 
cnoc," of wliich ho waa the chainnan. That commi^ 
too reooinmendcd to Synod the ailoption of the fol- 
lowing n«olution : 

rirfr..rl }^ V... « » • » f \ •'. (^'V.t.m . f ih« G«nnui B«/brm«J 

rofOM] of cfreriliif aa 

• MDOC^ a* M Um 

^ :«fbniMd IVoUaUnt 



4 ADDEESS. 

The Eeport recommending this resolution was ac- 
cepted. But whpn it was moved to adopt the above 
resolution, debate followed, and it was discussed at 
some length; when Rev. Thornton Butler, who had 
been recognized by Synod as the Commissioner from 
the North Carolina Classis, perceiving from the debate 
that several members of the Synod were opposed to 
forming a connection with them, withdrew the appli- 
cation of the Classis. He was afterwards requested, 
b}^ a resolution of the Synod, to " reconsider the 
withdrawal of his papers, and leave them, in the hands 
of the Synod until their meeting in October next : 
whereupon he consented to leave them in the hands 
of the Synod, subject to the advice of his Classis." 
According to the report of the New- York Tribune^ of 
June 16, 1855, there were two principal objections 
raised against the receiving of the Classis by the 
Synod ; the one was, that it was inexpedient to do so, 
because it would endanger the peace of the Church, 
and expose it to being distracted by the agitation of 
the question of slavery. This was urged by Eev. Dr. 
Wyckoff, of Albany, and Rev. Dr. Bethune, of Brook- 
lyn. The other was, that slaveholding is a sin, and 
that we ought not to hold communion with slave- 
holders. This objection was urged by Rev. Isaac 
G. Duryee, of Schenectady, who said, that he had 
" conscientious scruples against the formation of such 
a relation." According to the Tribune^ he declared 



ADDKESS. O 

as follows : "I can saj that my inmost soul shrinks 
from the idea of our extending the fellowship of our 
church to slaveholding churches as I shrink from the 
touch of the torpedo," etc., etc. The writer of this 
was not aware at the time that there were any Aboli- 
tionists among the ministers of the Reformed Dutch 
Church, or that such feelings as those expressed by 
.Rev. Mr. Duryee existed in the minds of any mem- 
bers of the Synod. He knew that slavery had existed 
in the Church for generations past, and that it now 
exists ; and that there is no prohibition of it in the 
form of our church-government, and that it had 
never been reproved by General Synod. He was, 
therefore, taken completely by surprise. He, how- 
ever, attempted a reply, and among other things, 
reminded the Synod that, as a judicatory of the 
Church of Christ, they were bound to administer its 
government according to the laws and principles 
taught us in God's holy word ; and that, as there was 
no prohibition of the holding of slaves, and nothing 
whatever in that holy word to warrant our refusal to 
form an ecclesiastical connection with these German 
brethren, we ought to assent to their proposal by 
receiving and incorporating them with our Church. 

At the late meeting of Synod in October, in the 
city of New- York, the question of receiving this 
Classis was again considered. On the third day of 
the session of Synod, a motion was made .and carried 



ADDRESS. 

in the affirmative to lay the whole subject on the 
table ; the vote at first standing 44 ayes and 41 nays. 
The ayes and nays were called for, and the vote then 
resulted in 50 ayes and 47 noes. The Commissioner 
from the Classis of North Carolina considered this 
vote as clearly exhibiting the feelings of a majority 
of the Synod towards the Classis, and withdrew from 
its sessions. lie also expressed to the Chairman of 
the Committee of Correspondence his desire that he 
would do nothing more in relation to this business, 
and received from liim the assurance that he would 
comply with his request. When, therefore, on the 
following day, this matter was called up, he stated to 
the Synod, that he considered the vote on the motion 
to lay this whole subject on the table as decisive, and 
that he had promised the Commissioner from North 
Carolina that he would take no further part in any 
doings of the Synod on this question. The following 
resolution was finally adopted : 

" Whereas, It is evident from the opiuioas expressed on this floor, that 
the Synod can not unite cordially in receiving the Classis of North 
Carolina within the limits of our Church ; and whereas the Synod desire 
to treat the Classis of North Carolina with th.e courtesy and kindness 
due to respected brethren, therefore 

'•'' R' solved, That the Commissioner of the Classis of North Carolina be 
requested to withdraw his pai)crs." 

On the second day of the sessions of Sj^nod, it 
being the order of the day to take this subject up, 
the Chairman of the Committee on Correspondence 
delivered, with the exception of a few passages which 



ADDRES?, 7 

ae omitteJ wlien speaking before the Synod, tlie fol- 
lowing 

ADDRESS. 



Mr. President: Two principal objections have 
been made against receiving into our Church the 
Classis of North Carohna. The first objection is, that 
if we do so, we shall destroy the peace of our Church, 
and introduce among ourselves distraction and divis- 
ion by the agitation of the slavery question. The 
second objection is, that slaveholding is a sin, and 
that therefore, we ought not to admit slaveholders 
into our Church. I shall attempt, first of all, to show 
that slaveholding is not a sin, and that therefore, 
there is no reason to exclude slaveholders, simply 
because they are slaveholders, from union and com- 
munion with us. If this is established, then both 
objections necessarily fail : for it would be alike ab- 
surd and wicked to disturb the peace of the Church 
for that which the Scriptures teach us is not a sin, 
and which was no bar to church-fellowship with the 
Apostles of Christ. 



I. THE HOLDING OF A SLAVE NOT A SIX. 

It has been said that " American Slavery is at war 



ADDRESS. 



with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitu^ 
tion of the United States, natural justice, and Chris^ 
tianitj"_"that slavery is a sin against God and a 
crime against man, ete."^ To these bold statements 
we reply, that the mass of the American people have 
never considered the holding of slaves as at war with 
the Declaration of Independence ; that the Supreme 
Court of the Nation has declared that it is not against 
the Constitution of the United States ; and that it is 
not against natural justice and Christianity, we shall 
now endeavor to prove. We admit that it is an evil 
much to be lamented, but we deny that it is a sin 
against God and a crime against man. 

As I am addressing the Supreme Ecclesiastical 
Court of the Eeformed Protestant Dutch Church, my 
iinal appeal shall be to the Holy Scriptures as the in- 
spired word of God, the only infallible and perfect 
rule of right and wrong, truth and error, in matters 
of religious faith and duty. We all profess to believe 
that "the law and the testimony of God" are the 
standard of duty and the rule of faith, and that if any 
"speak not according to this word, it is because there 
is no light in them." 

That the holding of slaves is not a sin we prove 
from the following passages of Scripture : 

1. 1 Tim. 6 : 1-5 : "Let as many servants as are 

* Sec 1.3th Annual Eeport of the Americau and Foreign Auti-Shiverv 
Society, pp. 3 and 16. 



THE HOLDING OF A SLAVE NOT A SIN. 9 

under the yoke count their own masters worthy of 
all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be 
not blasphemed. And they that have believing mas- 
ters, let them not despise them, because they are 
brethren ; but rather do them service, because they 
are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. 
These things teach and exhort. If any man teach 
otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even 
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doc- 
trine which is according to godliness ; he is proud, 
knowing nothing, but doting about questions and 
strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, 
evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt 
minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain 
is godliness : from Fuch withdraw thyself" 

We begin with the New Testament to obviate an 
objection that might be urged if we should begin 
with the Old Testament, that the Christian dispensa- 
tion has greater light and freedom and privileges 
than were enjoyed under the Jewish dispensation,, 
and that therefore, though slavery might have law* 
fully existed under the latter, that can not be pleaded 
in favor of its existing under the former. Our en- 
deavor will be to show that they both entirely agree 
on the point before us. 

The term "servants" in this passage of sacred 
Scripture is in the original Greek, " cZoi^Zoi*," the pri- 
mary meaning of which,. Eobinson in his Greek and 



10 ADDRESb. 

English Lexicon of the 'New Testament, gives as 
" a bondsman, slave, servant, pr. by birth ; diff. from 
andrapodon, one enslaved in war." — He says : " In a 
family the doulos was one bound io serve^ a slave^ and 
was the property of his master, ' a living possession,' 
as Aristotle calls him." — Schleusner gives as the 
meaning of the term — 1. proprie : servus, minister, 
homo non liber, nee sui juris et opponitur aleutheros^ 
that is, " its first and proper signification is that of a 
slave, a serving man, a man who is not free and at 
his own disposal." But to put his meaning beyond 
doubt, the Apostle adds the words, " under the yoke^'' 
which is an emblem of servitude or of the rule tc 
which any one is subject. lie here unquestionably 
speaks of slaves who are under bondage to their mas- 
ters. Bloomfield says : " The commentators are not 
sufficiently aware of the strength of this expression, 
in which there is a blending of two expressions to 
put the case in its strongest point of view (supposino- 
even the harshest bondage) in order to make the 
injunction to obedience the more forcible." These 
slaves the Apostle commands to *' count their own 
masters, whether heathen or Christians or Jews, 
worthy of all honor," and the reason that he gives 
for this is, " that the name of God and his doctrine 
be not blasphemed." It was lawful by the law of 
Moses, to make of the heathen bondmen for life, and 
to hold their children in bondage. But not so with 



THE HOLDING OF A SLAVE NOT A SIN. 11 

one who was born a Jew. He was permitted to serve 
only for six years, and it is qaite possible that there 
were some false teachers who asserted that, as no Jew 
was to remain a slave for life, so ought no Christian. 
This sentiment, if it had prevailed among those 
slaves who were Christians, would have caused them 
to despise and hate their masters, and to withhold 
from them the respect and obedience which they 
owed to them. They would thus bring a reproach 
on the Gospel as if it were a doctrine that taught 
men contempt for their superiors, and disobedience to 
their lawful commands. From speaking of the duty 
which slaves owe to their masters in general, the 
Apostle passes on to speak to those who have be- 
lieving masters who are their brethren in Christ. 
Here the questions whether the holding of slaves is a 
sin, and whether we should hold Christian commu- 
nion with slaveholders, are fairly met. Does the 
Apostle then teach the slaves that they ought to be 
free ? that their Christian masters sin in holding them 
in bondage? and does he, with apostolic authority 
and in the name of Jesus Christ, command the mas- 
ters to give them their freedom ? He does nothing 
of the kind. He not only does not require these 
Christian masters to set their slaves at liberty, but he 
speaks of them as " faithful and beloved " brethren, 
" partakers of the benefit," and for this very reason 
he exhorts Christian slaves not to despise them, but 



12 



.\L>i'ltK.<S. 



rather to do tliem service. It seems iiupossiblc for 
the question before us to be more fully and directly 
settled. ]]ut the Aixxstle proceeds further. He gays 
that " if any man teach otherwise," that is, if ibere U 
any Abolitionist among you, any Immediate PJmanci- 
pationist, who says that no Christian can, without 
sin, hold a slave ; that if he hoMs any, he la bound in 
duty immediately to lil>erate them, and if he docs 
not, then true Christians are bound to refuse church- 
fcllowshij. and communion with him lest they should 
partake of his .sin— if any man tciich these thing.^. 
then he does " not con.sent to wholesome wortU, even 
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doc- 
trine which is according to godliness.*' This we 
should suppose would have been a sufficient rebuke. 
But to show the criminality of the doctrine of these 
early Abolitionists in the Christian church, the Ajxjs. 
tie proceeds to say, that he who teaches their doctrine 
"is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about ques- 
tions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, 
strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of 
men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, 
supposing that gain is godliness." He, then, in a 
most marked manner, shows the falseness and danger 
of their sentiments by commanding Timothy, '^ from 
such withdraw thyself," that is, hold no intercourse 
with them. ^Ye shall not inquire how far this pre- 
cept extends, nor whether it is a prohibition against 



THE nOLDIXO OF A SLAV.- v. .t i ^iv l'^ 

] ■ church comraonion wiih A": or 

w!;< ::• r the A[KwtIc docs not mean to teach lu that 
th. :r - *A arc 80 rc'. -'^hTi *> * ve 

f the established ordcf of ty, ao cd to 

j.rf><l'ie discontent and -• \ in Uio tuitids of 

the slaves as to C" r not unly public but domes* 

tio peaoo and Mifety, and to ] by stirring up 

the slaves to insurrection, maK itul horn>rS| like 

those of the NfaMtacren of St Ik> in the year 

171H). Certain it n^ that he coi: us to with- 

draw frr'Tn them. 

2. Wo n j.v turn to the Old T** * . nt. Wo are 
«:;f>rmed, Gen. 17: 1-14, that when Abram wai< 
ty years old and nine, the Lord again ratitieil the 
nnt which ho had made with him, and iuaii- 
•i circumcijuon as the sacmmcntiU sign of the 
(' V • rit. lie comr " ! : '* Ho that 15 eiglit dayn 
old uinon^ jou, every ittaD-child, in your generations 
— he that is born in thy houae, and he that is bought 
with thy • . must nec<li! bo circumcise*!/' (V. 

12, 18 ) ' Lie thai ia bought with thy money,*" 
means the bought slave, and to such God commanded 
tho siL'n of his covenant to be administered, llero 
then God took Abraham, a slaveholder, his children 
and his bought slaves into covenant with himself 
without expressing tlio -* ' * -t disapprobation of his 
hoMing slaves, but in the lulicst manner authorizing 
him to retain them as a portion of his family or 



14 ■ ADDRESS. 

household by taking him and them into covenant 
with him. Abraham was a large slaveholder, for wo 
arc told, Gen. U : 14, 15, that he armed three hund- 
red and eighteen of his slaves to pursue the ki: 
who had captured I>>t ; and the servant whom he had 
commissioned to procure a wife for I«aac, iu recount- 
ing to the family of Rel^ecca the great wealth of 
Abraham said : '' The Lord hath blessed my master 
greatly, and he is become great ; and ho hath given 
him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and men- 
servants and maid-servants, and camels and a«=ea.*' 
(Gen. 24 : 35.) Here mcn-8ervantj> — the original term 
means servants who arc bought, or inherited slaves — 
sucli men-servants and maid-servanta are enumeraleil 
as a j)art of the j)roperty belonging to Abraham — 
property wliicli the I^)rd hath given liim ; in the 
bestowal of which the Lord had blessed him, and the 
possession of wliich Abraham's servant ur^rcd as a 
reason for Rebecca marrying his son. 

But what is tlic character that is given to Abra- 
ham ? The Apostle James tells ils that this slave- 
holding Abraham ''was called the friend of God:' 
(Jas. 2 : 23.) Tlic Apostle Paul teaches us that he 
was "the father of all them that believe." (Kom. 
4 : 11.) In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, 
to teach us the wonderful change that death made in 
the condition of the poor beggar, Christ tells us that 
"he was carried by the angels into Abraham's 
bosom." (Luke 16 : 22.) 



mfc iiUi^DINO OF A ?i.A> t >"r A SIN .0 

The Covenant wliich we are ring, wa« made 

w.'Ai Abraham and with his children that should 
come nli'T i.rn in their J^ for an everlasl- 

ricr O It wait by this covenant that God 

!: his visible Church on earth. He and 

lii^ • DOW aeparated from the world 

}.v < i • - If. and were taken into a special cove- 
: him- The ] was : " I 

wiil be a Got! unto thee and to thjr »ce<l after thee,** 
and n^ i and the seal of this Covenant, circum- 

cifio!! • and t': rth th« 'its 

I Imiao and Jacob, became "an 

1 •• unto the Lord their God ;** and the Lord 

to be a |> "to himself above 

all naii«»n.i that were n|V)n ' nlu (Deut 14: 2.) 

:i to A 1 wftii: "In thy 

seed 8hall all the nations of th bo blcused." 

jtromiscil bcxhI wa.-* Christ, iiccauno of the ro- 
i« tion of Chhimt by the Jews, the natural descend- 
'.ntij of Abraham, they became an :. church, 

and the kingdom of God was taken away from them 
and given to a nation or a race of men bringing 
forth iho fruitu thereof. They ccasc<l to be the 
peculiar people of God, and ihcnrcforlh the middle 
wall of partition, the ceremonial law that separated 
the Jew from the Gentile, was broken down ; and 
believing Gentiles weic admitted into the Church 
along with believing Jews. The covenant, however, 



16 ADDHKSS. 

was the same, and through Curist *'t]ic I 
Abraham comes on the Gentiles, for they are all the 
children of God by faith in Christ Jesua, and k) they 
are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the prom- 
ise." Circumcision taught the Jew to look forward 
by faith to a coming Messiah to save him from sin 
and make liim a child of God. Baj)iii^m teaches us 
to look back and rejoice that the jiroraised »ii'«-<l of 
Abraham, from whom he receives the bl l 

salvation, has come. Circumcision now on the j>art 
of the Jews is the standing testimony : them 

that tlicy reject Christ, and bo arc rejected by liira. 
Baptism is the standing testimony that we believe in 
Christ as the seed of Abraham, in whom it wai^ 
promised tliat all nations should be blci^ed. B(fon 
his coming circumcision, and since his coming, bap- 
tism distinguished from the world the organized 
visible Church of God, which has existed from the 
institution of circumcision, and will exist to the end 
of time. But this covenant was made with a slave- 
holder, and this visible Church was organized in his 
family, aud his slaves received the sign of the cov- 
enant along with himself and his children. 

Moreover, the non-holding of slaves has never 
been made a term or condition of church fellowship. 
Bingham, in his Antiquities of the Christian Church, 
informs iis that, "We find by the author of the 



TUB nOLDIXO OF A 8L.iVK NOT A SIN 1 7 

Jon.'^tituticmfl, umicr iho nAinc of tl:c Aih-i\-,* ihnt 
in the lirst ages of tho ChriDtiao C one part of 

thf in niirv thrxt was mndc mr. tho60 who 

J to bftpt aa, wheihcr they 

:rTc r.! ivcs OF frocmcii. If they were ?lnvc5 to a 

they were only laoL^ht thHr «- ns to 

j._ - maatcr, ihal ll. -i not 

bob. , i; and ihc master hn«! no - ron- 

rcrn iu ihcir baptUm. ns Wnir K !: 

ut if the maiftcr w in, then the 

onr -f the maatcr w I to be rtijuirtti conctTn- 

nnf\ • 1 of his iibvc before he 

i h^ n ! ^ of If ho 

gav I ho u !: if 

<^>i \ ho wa« ix'j bo ajj^ . f 

hU iiiantor. So fnr in tliosc *lnr^ it wji*< 

v»nry find acr . o to r < i- 

Uan -« a power oY^r * jl 

t) find ft tlicy could not be ac- 

-m/*4 So far, too, we 
ll}- add, were tlicy from c - the holding of 

slaves to bo sinful in itself. 

8. Our third argument to prove that the ho!<ling 
f slaves is not sinful, is derived from Kxod. 20: 17. 
Thou shalt not oovet thy neighbor's house ; thou 

* HupiMiMd to b« of the •coood mud thinl ccolan< < 

8«« alao SoutLcm rrctbjrtomit 



18 ADDRESS. 

shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man- 
servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor htf 
nor anythinf^ that is thy neighl)nr*fi." Tliis prcce|'t 
establislics the riglit of projKjrty, and forbids not only 
the unjust depriving the owner of his lawful prop 
erty, but even the secret desire to do so. It htrike- 
down at once into the dust Commmii.sm and S<x:ialism. 
It teaches us that there is a division, and that iherr 
arc rights of j)roperty; that there arc masters an«: 
that there are slaves, and bids us to respect the r 
of tlie master, and not to covet his man-servant or 
Ills maid-servant. 

The division of j)roperty and the security of thr 
owner in the possession of it, lie at the foundation o! 
civilized and Christian life, and where they are un- 
known m3n arc wandering tribes of barbarians, ignor 
ant, rapacious. an<l deba.sed. To cultivate the art- 
and sciences that embolli.sh and exalt human life, and 
especially to have colleges and churches, the right oi 
property must be respected, and the desire and the 
attempt to deprive others of projKjrt}' which the law 
of God and the law of the land have made it lawful 
for them to hold, is to strike a blow at the very ex- 
istence of civilization and Christianity. AVe admit 
that there are gi-eat inequalities in the j>ossession ot 
property and in the conditions of men, and that there 
are many evils to be deplored. But with all their 
inequalities and evils, the worst despotism on earth 



TTTE IIOLMSQ OF A SLAVE NOT A 51N. 19 

ig to be '"a i'Uiie of ronslani aiiarvi.y and 

y of • • • I war- ' ' ve ftS 

bO| >€t under u : '-i nicn 

ve iit ♦ • and securuy. l udcr anar» 

hy no maii u aaic in the po«<cwion of life or 

fore oomniandM us to rD!»|>cct ibo 

lo leave ihc lawful owner of it in 

.o ui. i I jK>««wion of it, even though it be a 

I or A mr. ' What though wc 

iiicre it in, il actually 

^ lur wii*: u; rcoM^na God permits it, and 

ut uui lo aeck by force to remove it. 

iic liu '! no mcMengeri of v ' o and of 

\var, «< ' ' . . . ,, ,iii carnal 

\v. • . i" remove the 

-» i;;;a i.\..-i, wf tluit we may 

vj .-. • • men. Thia was the plan of 

1. wiK. >M ui ii»rth with sword and fire to 

j,'uui?ii an.i destroy all those who did not agno with 

him in what he • ' - « •- 'h and right This 

was the plan of Li- •*....• ..... .cl propagnndistB of 

171^3; and this wo fear is the plan of many amongst 

i^ ami we — "■•* lo say of some who arc called min- 

..hUth of ll.r u,.>pel, a name which ihcy do not 

Ir^sorve and should not bear. No, ** the wcniwns of 

ur warfare arc not carnal, but mighty through God 

) llic pulling down of strong-lioUhi." We are min- 

-fi i> of }>i:xr,\, not of war, .iiid thcy who would put 



20 ADDRESS. 

down wliat tliey consider wrong among us by vio- 
lence and bloodshed, miglit have made good followers 
of Mohammed and able allies to French infidel re- 
publicans; but we can not admit their claim to be 
the ministers of the Gospel of the Prince of Peace. 

4. Our fourth argument to prove that slavery ia 
not sinful, is derived from the ceremonial and politi- 
cal law given to the Israelites by God, as well as the 
moral law. One of the most remarkable of the insti- 
tutions of the Levitical law, was the passover which 
commemorated the deliverance of the Israelites from 
their bondage in Egypt. We are told that the Lord 
said to Moses and Aaron : "This is the ordinance of 
the passover ; there shall no stranger eat thereof 
But every man's servant that is bought for money^ 
when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat 
thereof. A foreigner and an hired servant shall not 
eat thereof" When the bought servant was circum- 
cised he became a member of his master's family, and 
was entitled to various privileges which were not 
granted to the foreigner who was a hired servant. 
He became one of the covenant people of God, for 
his circumcision signified this to him ; and if he was 
an Israelite indeed^ then it was to him, as well as to 
Abraham, "a seal of the righteousness of faith." 

Another remarkable law was that of the Jubilee, 
which returned every fiftieth year, when every 
Hebrew servant was set free with his children, and 



THE HOLDING OF A SLAVE NOT A SIN. 21 

was restored to his own family and the possessions of 
his father. But it was not so with servants who were 
foreigners. The law in relation to them was as fol» 
lows : " Both thy bond-men and thy bond-maids 
which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that 
are round about you ; of them shall ye buy bond- 
men and bond-maids. Moreover, of the children of 
the strangers that do sojourn among yon, of them 
shall ye buy and of their families that are with you 
which they begat in your land, and they shall be 
your possession ; and ye shall take them as an inherit- 
ance for your children after you to inherit them for a 
possession. They shall be your bondmen for ever." 
(Lev. 25 : 44-46.) It is remarkable that this law 
was given within the space of the first year after the 
departure of the Israelites out of Egypt.* But in all 
the history of their deliverance from the cruel bond- 
age in which they were there held, no mention is 
made of any slaves among them ; nor when we con- 
sider their abject poverty is it probable that they 
possessed any. It seems probable, therefore, that the 
laws relating to slaveholding were given to them in 
anticipation of the existence of slavery among them 
after they were settled in the land of Canaan : and if 
so, they were plainly permitted by God to hold slaves. 
It has been said that when Abraham was taken into 
covenant by God, the holding of slaves was fully 

* Compare Exodus 19 : 1, with Numbers 10 : 11, 



22 ADDRESS. 

established, and that had he even wished and at- 
tempted to do away with it, we have no reason to 
suppose that he would have succeeded, but would 
have exposed himself and his family to the resent- 
ment of those among whom he dwelt, and that there- 
fore God permitted him to hold slaves. But this can 
not be said of the laws in relation to slavery which 
were given to the Israelites. They were then sepa- 
rated from all other nations, alone and in the wilder- 
ness, they were under the special protection of God 
and had nothing to fear from any of the neighboring 
nations. But instead of forbidding them to hold 
slaves, he expressly permitted them to do so. We 
might produce other arguments from the laws given 
by Moses to the Israelites ; but we think'that enouo-h 
has been presented to show that the holding of slaves 
was not forbidden by God, and was no bar to the 
enjoying of church privileges. 

It may be objected, however, that under the Old 
Testament dispensation many things were permitted 
which are not tolerated under the New Testament 
dispensation, a dispensation of greater light and purity 
and privileges than belonged to the old dispensation. 
Let us then examine the New Testament and inquire 
what are its teachings on this subject. 

1. Our first remark is, that Christ and his Apostles 
in the strongest manner assert the divine inspiration 
and bindiog authority of Moses and the Prophets, 



THE HOLDING OF A SLAVE NOT A SIN. 23 

that is, of the Old Testament Scriptures. On this 
point there was no dispute between them and the 
Jews. It was Jesus Christ the Son of God who gave 
to the Israelites their laws in the wilderness, and who 
spake by his spirit in the prophets,* who was again 
visibly present among the Jews in the humble form 
of the Man of Nazareth, explaining and enforcing the 
laws which he had before given to them. The Law 
of Ten Commandments is referred to and argued 
from by both Christ and his Apostles, as the Law of 
God of universal and perpetual obligation, and con- 
sequently the tenth command is in as full force at the 
present day as when it was first given, and the right 
of the master to his man-servant and maid-servant 
remains as strong as at the first. Moreover, all true 
believers in Christ are children of Abraham, and so 
under and interested in the Covenant which God 
made with him. " Know ye, therefore," says the 
Apostle, " that they which are of faith the same are 

the children of Abraham So then they 

which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. 
. . . . If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's 
seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal. 8 : 7, 
9, 29.) It is under that covenant which God made 
with Abraham to be a God to him and to his seed 
after him, and of which circumcision, before the 

* Luke 24 : 27. Acts 24 : 14, etc. 



24 



ADDRESS. 



death of Christ, was the sign, and baptism now is and 
has been since his death, that the visible Church is 
now placed, and believing masters with their be- 
lieving slaves are now as they ever have been entitled 
to the sign and privileges of the covenant. 

2. Our Lord repeatedly spoke of slaves, especially 
in several of his parables, without the slightest inti- 
mation that he condemned slavery, and in such a 
way as plainly showed that he considered it lawful. 
Among others we refer to the parable of the Unmer- 
ciful Servant, Matt. 18: 23-35. Of the Talents, 
Matt. 25: 14-30. Of the Unprofitable Servants, 
Luke 17 : 7, 10. 

3. We are told, Matt. 8 : 5-13, that a Centurion 
came to Jesus beseeching him to heal his sick ser- 
vant. When Jesus offered to come and heal him, the 
centurion replied : '' Lord, I am not worthy that thou 
shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word 
only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a 
man under authority, having soldiers under me : and 
I say to this man. Go, and he goeth ; and to another, 
Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, (slave', 
doulo,) Do this, and he doeth it." Here was a 
heathen, high in office, acknowledging to Christ that 
he was a slaveholder, and asking of him to heal his 
servant. If the holding of slaves had been sinful, 
Jesus would, we doubt not, have so informed him! 
Instead of this he highly commended his faith. He 



THE HOLDING OF A SLAVE NOT A SIN. 25 

marvelled and said to them that followed, Yerily I 
say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not 
in Israel. Did he say that a slaveholder could not 
be a Christian ? that he could not be saved ? that he 
would not own him as a disciple ? He said just the 
reverse. " I say unto you that many shall come 
from the east and west and shall sit down with Abra- 
ham and Isaac and Jacob in. the kingdom of heaven," 
plainly intimating that this believing Koman centu- 
rion should be one of them. 

The divinely-inspired writers of the Books of the 
New Testament imitate their Master, for while they 
address commands, exhortations^ and admonitions to 
masters and slaves, they do not give the slightest 
intimation that slaveholding is sinful. We shall 
select some of the passages which refer to this sub- 
ject : 

Eph. 6 : 5-S. — Servants, be obeclieut nnto theui that are your masters 
according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your 
heart as nnto Christ ; not with eye-service as men-plcasers, but as the 
servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart ; with good will 
doing service, as to the Lord and not to men : knowing that whatsoever 
good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, 
whether he be bond or free. 

Coloss. 3 : 22-25.^Servants, obey in all things your masters according 
to the flesh, not with eye-service as men-pleasers ; but in singleness of 
heart, fearing God : and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the 
Lord, and not unto men : knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the 
reward of the inheritance : for ye serve the Lord Jesus Christ. But he 
that doetlj wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done : and 
there is no respect of persons. 

Titus 2 : 9, 10. — Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, 
and to please them in all things ; not answering again ; not purloining, 
but showing all good fidelity ; that they may aduru the doctrine of Cod 
our Saviour in all things. 



26 ADDKESS. 

1 Peter 2 : 18-21. — Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear ; 
not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is 
thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffer- 
ing wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your 
faults, ye shall take it patiently ? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for 
it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto 
were ye called.* 

The Apostles fully recognize the right of the mas- 
ters in their servants, and to their obedience and 
service, and exhort the servants to yield these to 
their masters, as their duty and for conscience toward 
God. 

We think that we have fully established from 
Scripture our position, that the holding of slaves is 
not a sin. We might indeed have pursued a shorter 
course, and have challenged the Abolitionists to pro- 
duce a single law of God forbidding it. We are told 
that " whosoever committeth sin transgresseth the 
law, for sin is the transgression of the law r (1 John 8 : 
4,) and that "sin is not imputed when there is no 
law." (Rom. 5: 13.) Slavery is constantly spoken 
of in the sacred Scriptures, but there is no direct 
prohibition of it, no special law against it, and there- 
fore it does not come under the definition of sin 
given by the inspired apostle. We can not therefore 
but consider the harsh and bitter denunciations of 
slaveholders as both unwarranted and anti-scriptural. 
Before leaving this part of our subject, we think it 

* In all the above quotations from the Epistles of the Apostle Pai;l, 
he uses the term doulol, bond slaves — the Apostle Peter uses the term 
olketai^ which also sometimes means shaves. See Luke 16 : 13. 



THE HOLDING OF A SLAVE NOT A SIN. 27 

right to refer to two cases of fugitive slaves. The 
one is that of Onesimus, who ran away from his 
master, Philemon, who was a Christian, and had been 
converted through the ministry of Paul. Though a 
slaveholder, the Apostle commends him for his love 
and faith toward the Lord Jesus and toward all 
saints. Onesimus, his fugitive slave, came to Eome, 
and was there converted also under the ministry of 
Paul, and had, by his exemplary temper and conduct, 
gained his high esteem. How does Paul act under 
these circumstances? He was an inspired apostle, 
invested with authority from Christ to teach Chris- 
tian doctrines and to enforce Clii'istian duties, and 
therefore his conduct in this case would be a prece- 
dent to guide the Church in all future similar cases. 
He explicitly and fully recognized the right of Phile- 
mon, and sent back his slave, at the same time 
earnestly commending him to the mercy and for- 
giveness and Christian love of his master. 

Another strong test-case is that of Hagar, the fugi- 
tive slave of Abraham. She had fled from the 
oppression of her mistress, Sarah. The angel of the 
Lord— or rather, as we think the words should be 
translated, the Angel-Jehovah — found her in the 
wilderness, and said, " Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence 
camest thou ? and whither wilt thou go ? And she 
said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And 
the angel of the Lord said unto her, Eeturn to thy 



28 ADDRESS. 

mistress, and submit thyself under lier hands." (G-en. 
16 : 6-9.) Here the Lord Jehovah taught Hagar her 
duty as a slave, to submit to and obey her mistress, 
and recognized the right of masters to their slaves. 

We have thus far considered only the question 
whetlicr slavery is a sin, and liave shown that Abra- 
ham was a slaveholder when the Lord called and 
entered into covenant with him ; that at the iirst 
organization of the visible Church of God, slaves and 
their children were admitted into it alone* with their 
masters, and that the sign of the covenant was equally 
administered to both ; that the laws which God gave 
to the Israelites by ^foses clearly recognized the right 
of masters in their slaves and to their service ; that 
Christ and his disciples enforced these laws ; that 
under the Gospel dispensation slaveholders and their 
slaves were admitted to church-membership and its 
privileges; that special commands v/ere given to 
regulate the intercourse betweei\ masters and their 
slaves ; and that the Apostle Paul, and even the 
Angel -Jehovah himself, sent back to their owners 
.slaves who had run away from tiiem. It is evident 
from this that God has not made the holding of slaves 
a sin, and that to attempt to exclude all slaveholders, 
simply as and because they arc such, from church 
communion, is a usurpation of unlawful power against 
the covenant and the law of God. We have made 
our appeal to the Scriptures of truth, heartilv assent- 



REASONS FOR THE PERMISSION OF SLAVERY. 29 

ing to the teachings of the confession of faith of our 
Church, which says : " We believe in the sufficiency 
of the Holy Scriptures to be the only rule of faith. 
We believe that those Holy Scriptures fully contain 
the word of God, and that whatsoever man ought to 
believe unto salvation is sufficiently taught therein. 

Therefore we reject with all our hearts 

whatsoever doth not agree with this infallible rule 
which the apostles have taught us, saying, ' Try the 
spirits, whether they are of God. Likewise, ' If there 
come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, re- 
ceive him not into your house.' " (Art. 1, § 7.) 



il. HEASONS FOR THE PERMISSION OF SLAVERY. 

Since God has permitted slavery to exist in his 
Church, and has made it the subject of special legisla- 
tion, there must be not only sufficient, but good and 
wise reasons for his so doing. Should we be unable 
to discover these reasons, it would be our duty to 
bow in humble acquiescence, assured that he ever 
acts with infinite wisdom and goodness. But there 
are most important reasons for what He has done, 
some of which we shall now attempt to specify. 

Slavery is one of the penal effects of the fall, and of 
the great wickedness of men r The only effectual remedy 
for these evils, is the redemption of men from sin by 

'^ See Appendix. 



30 ADDKESS. 

our Lord Jesus Christ; and this redemption is aj 
plied to them through the instrumentality of ll. 
word, and of tlie ministers of God which he has givi 
to the Chureh. 

1. At the very time when God pronounced O!) 
man the sentence of death, immediat4.'ly after his fir>t 
sin, lie said to the Seri>ent : "I will put enmity be- 
tween thee and the woman, and between thy sccmI 
and her seed : it shall bruise thy heml, and thou shall 
bruise his heel." It is here foretold that there would 
be constiint enmity through the whole period of the 
power of " that Old Serpent, called the Devil and 
Satan, which deceiveth the whole world," (Itev. 12 : 
9,) together witli wicked men, whom he rules, ani 
who are called "the children of the devil," (1 John 
3: 10,) and tlio Lord Jesus Christ, the seed of th' 
woman. It is foretold, that in this contest the seed 
of the woman should bruise the serpent's he^id, that 
it should inflict a mortal blow on his jHDwcr ; and that 
the serpent should bruise his heel, that it shouM 
injure his human nature, in which he dwelt and tro^l 
upon the earth. This was accomplished, when Christ 
" through death destroyed him that had the power of 
death, that is, the de\41, and delivered them who 
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject 
to bondage." (Heb. 2 : 14, 15.) This promise gave 
the first gleam of light and hope to our fallen race. 
All the cruelties and oppressions and deaths that 



KKAi^NH fOK TIIK FKRMIA^ION OK 8LAVEKV. 31 



iiii > f t » « 1 V 



xi.-^lcd among men, have been caii^cii by 
tbcir n)>o8Uisy from God, and the delusions and 
Urn: ♦ .ti«>nj« of ihc devil. The rcmccly for all ihU is 
tlic roieinption that is in ChriKt Jcsua. This w the 
nmedy that Goil luui provided, and there is no otlicr. 
'll.c univental extension of the Gospel of Chmt, in its 
parity and jiowcr, over tlie whole worM i-< that 
which alone can remove tlie evili of the l. .. 

2. Thifl truth wan more fully revenleil when God 
gave to Abraham the prominc : ** In thy ueetl shall all 
the nations of the earth be blcascd. The exposition 
of this promise is given to us by the Apostle, when 
he says : ** Now to Abrahmm and his seed were the 
proinist^ maiU*. He saith not, And to seet^ as of 
many ; but as one. And to thy seed, which is Christ," 
He says : '* Christ hath redecmeii us frt>m thf cunio 
of llic Iaw, being made a curse for u.- That 

tin- Mt.tiing of Abraham might come on the Gentilen 
throujfh Jesus Christ, that we might receive the 
irnmix* of the Spirit through faith/' (Gal. S : l»i, 18, 
11.) This bleiising of Abraham, God communicates 
to the world through the Church, and a clear under- 
Btnnding of the origin, the nature, the privileges, and 
the design of the visible Church, which began in the 
family of Abraham, will greatly assist us to form 
right concliLsions on the subject of slaver^'. 

8. The Church hml its origin at a time when the 
world was full of idolatry and wickednet«, and 



i^2 ADUKHSS. 

seemed t(^ be f;ist ha.slening to the same stale of vio-- 
Icncc and crime as existed before the llooJ. Then, 
G(;d interposed in wratli, and, with tl. i 

Noah and his fiimily, destroyed the whole nico f* • 
their sins. Now, however, he intcrjx>scd in ni 
not to destroy, but to reform the race. To arrest liie 
wickedness that was spreading in all directions, an 1 
prevent its universal prevalence, he called Abraham 
and entered into covenant with him. lie apix^inU : 
circumcision, as its sign and seal that he would bo ; 
God to liim and to his seed after him ; and he com- 
man<lc<l liim to administer this sign and seal of tho 
covenant — not to the servants that he had hired, but 
to liim that is " bought with money of any 
which is not of thy seed." (Gen. 17 : 12.) Doc-s ii. 
Abolitionist burn with indignation against the wicl 
cduess of slaveholders, and of those who do not joi 
in liis wrath and denunciations against them ? Do- 
he cry: "Lot justice be done though the heavei. 
fall?" Let liim look back and see this justice done 
in the terrible desolations of the Hood. But di<l tli: 
reform man ? It is easy to declaim against popular 
evils and popular sins to which we ourselves have n- 
personal temptations ; but it may be laid down as a 
sure maxim, that the man who does not resist and 
repel the temptations to which he is personally ex- 
posed ; who -declaims against the sin of others with 
whom he has no personal connection, and from wlnjm 



•Oin- profit, will iit 

ii j ; . :ir in the CliUK.. ... ^^ ^^'^ 

and vviu for- ♦ t..,.vio| ^._. .crlhe c 
-. _. . ..1 . .'- and to cWrv w 

• -i* r»»ti »i*- ■ 



I «irf P'l* ' 



Y! 

In 
.1 . 



iliK 



I injiuaioc, .,.. - alt i ^^ 

llt>ri|.'l»i ? It w"«^'' in. rrlv *rt lor.-.' n n 1" of 

• V unpn ^^** ' 

,...,iT to the I 

A ..ve IwlongH to tho lowest . . in of men, 

id JH oflcn ox[>oecd to injuria! and opprewion fn»m 
!4 m.vtcr without Iwinir nhh^ to obtain relief. To 
ilipato the evils of hi« « n, to teach his ma-ftor 

at though ho is a slave, ho is yt»t a man, an 
imortal and unmvountablo King like himsolf; to 
... ^,rt liis riuht.<. and shcltc^r him from injury, God 



34 ADDRESS. 

took him into covenant with, himself, and along with 
his master and his master's children, commanded him 
to be circumcised. He thus taught the master, that 
while he permitted him to retain the slave as his 
property, and to require from him labor, and obe- 
dience to all his lawful commands, he must beware 
how he oppressed and injured him ; that he, as the 
covenant-God of his slave, would be the avenger of 
his wrongs, and that he required of him, as the mas- 
ter, to respect the rights, and endeavor to promote 
the spiritual welfare of his slave, and to treat him not 
only as a man, but as a brother in the Lord. 

To the slave, too, who was bought from among the 
heathen, it was a privilege of unspeakable value thus 
to be admitted to the covenant of the people of God. 
Not only was the condition of the slave among the 
heathen much more degraded and wretched than 
among the Israelites, but he lived and died in spir- 
itual darkness and hopelessness. But among the He- 
brews he was placed under the protection of the 
covenant and law of God. He was taught that he 
was not a poor, degraded, wretched and friendless 
outcast ; but that the eternal God was his father and 
his protector, who admitted him to the blessings and 
the privileges of his covenant, and gave him a name 
and a place in his Church. How great was the privi- 
lege, how rich were the blessings bestowed on him ! 

Among the laws that God gave to protect the slave 



REASONS FOR THE PERMISSION OF SLAVERY. 35 

from the cruelty of the master, one was the follow- 
ing : " If a man smite his servant or his maid with a 
rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely 
punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or 
two, he shall not be punished for he is his money." 
Another law was, that : " If a man smite the eye of 
his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish, he 
shall let him go free for his eye's sake. And if he 
smite out his man-servant's tooth or his maid-serv- 
ant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's 
sake." (Exod. 21 : 20, 21, 26, 27.) Some suppose 
that the meaning of the words " he shall be pun- 
ished," in the law relative to beating a slave, is that 
he shall be punished with death ; but many commen- 
tators think that it means that he shall be punished 
at the discretion of the magistrate, according to the 
circumstances of the case. It is, however, implied in 
this case, that the master has beaten his slave with a 
proper and usual instrument of correction, that he 
did not intend to murder him, and that the loss of 
property and of services is part of his punishment. 
We learu, too, that the mutilation of any member of 
the body of a slave by his master entitled him to 
freedom. 

The Hebrews were commanded to give to their 
slaves the rest of the Sabbath, and to allow them to 
partake along with themselves, and their sons and 
their daughters, of the'feasts which were made of the 



36 ADDRESS. 

second tithes. (Deut. 12: 17, 18; 16: 11.) Thus 
they were not only protected from the cruelty of 
their masters, but admitted to partake in their most 
sacred festivals, and to rejoice along with them. 

It would be interesting to compare the state of 
slaves among the Hebrews, with their state in other 
and heathen nations, and to show its superiorit}^. A 
writer on Hebrew antiquities has correctly remarked, 
that though " they were sometimes the subjects of 
undue severity of treatment, and of sufferings in ] 
various Avays, (Jer. 34: : 8-22,) still it can not be 
denied that their condition was better among the 
Hebrews than among some other nations, as may be 
learnt from their well-known rebellions against the 
Greeks and Romans. Nor is it at all wonderful that 
the Hebrews differed from other nations in the treat- 
ment of their slaves, in a way so much to their credit, 
when we consider that in other countries there was 
no Sabbath for the slave, no day of rest, and no laws 
sanctioned b}^ the Divinity." (Jahn, §172.) 

From the few intimations that arc given us on the 
subject, it seems that pious masters, before the coming 
of Christ, treated their slaves with strict justice and 
humanity ; that their condition was easy, and that 
they were not only contented, but often strongly at- 
tached to their masters. Who can read the interest- 
ing prayers of the eldest servant of Abraham, his 
fidelity in the discharge of the duty committed to 



HEASONS FOR THE PERMISSION OF SLAVERY. 37 

him, and tlie terms in whicli he speaks of his master, 
without the conviction that strong friendship towards 
each other existed in both the master and the slave ? 
(Gen. 24.) Holy Job had his slaves, and numerous 
slaves too ; but that he was far from oppressing them, 
and that he rightly discharged his duty to them, is 
manifest from his solemn protestation before God : 
"If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or of 
my maid-servant when they contended with me, what 
then shall I do when God riseth up ; and when he 
visiteth, what shall I answer him ? Did not He that 
made me in the womb make him ? and did not one 
fashion us in the womb ?" (Job 31 : 13, 15.) 

Such were the laws which God gave to the He- 
brews, which continued throughout their whole com- 
monwealth, under which Christ, as the Son of Man, 
and his holy apostles, lived, and to which, in all their 
teachings and writings, we find no objection — not a 
single word of their injustice, or of the propriety of 
their repeal, or even of their amendment. What, 
too, is more remarkable, is the fact that, if slavery is 
unjust, Christ, in his comment on, and explanation of 
the law of Moses, in his Sermon on the Mount, does 
not give the slightest intimation of it. 

When we turn to the inspired writings of the 
Apostles, writings addressed to fully organized Chris- 
tian churches, whose government and discipline were 
administered by the laws of Christ's kingdom, do we 



38 ADDRESS. 

find that they denounced slaveholding as a sin ? Do 
they require a protest against slavery, or enjoin on 
masters the immediate emancipation of their slaves 
as a condition of admittance to their communion, or 
of continuance in it ? There is not a syllable of the 
kind in all their writings. But they do command 
them to be just and benevolent. The Apostle hav- 
ing exhorted slaves to the faithful discharge of the 
duties which they owed to their masters, from the 
fear of God, and a regard to his glory, commands the 
masters to do their duty to the slaves in the same 
manner. He says : " And ye masters, do the same 
thing unto them, forbearing threatening : knowing 
that your Master also is in heaven, neither is there 
respect of persons with him." (Eph. 6 : 9.) " Mas- 
ters, give unto your servants that which is just and 
equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." 
(Col. 4 : 1.) 

The position, then, in which slavery is now placed j 
b}^ the laws of Christ is this : They concede to mas- 
ters the right of ownership of their slaves, and at the 
same time they remind them that there are important 
duties which they owe to them as immortal, and 
many of them as redeemed creatures, whom God has 
taken into covenant with himself, and that they must 
give account to him for the manner in which they 
discharge or violate these duties. They command 
the slave to submit to the rule of his master, and to 



KEASONS FOR THE PEEMISSION OF SLAVERY. 89 

perform the duties wHch lie owes to him with fidel- 
ity, and in the fear of God. To both the master and 
the slave, they say : " As ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye also to them likewise :" (Luke 6 : 
81,) that is, suppose that your conditions and rela- 
tions in life were changed — that a man was in your 
condition and held your relations, and you were in 
his condition and held his relations, as under these 
circumstances you would wish him to act towards 
you so do you act towards him. We are aware that 
this passage has been interpreted to mean, that as no 
man desires to be held in slavery, so the slaveholder 
should gratify the desires of the sliive and make him 
free. This is entirely changing the rule, and making 
it to read thus ; " Whatsoever others would that you 
should do to them that do ye to them." But it is : 
''Asye would that others should do to you, do ye 
also to them likewise." We have no right to desire 
others to give up their lawful rights, or to do un- 
justly, for our sakes ; nor does Christ intend that we 
shall sacrifice our rights, or fail to do our duties, for 
the sake of gratifying the unreasonable or unlawful 
and sinful desires of others. 

Take the case of a murderer and a judge or a jury- 
man. Would it be right for a judge or a juryman to 
reason thus : '' If I were in the case of this murderer 
I should wish to be acquitted, but I ought to do to 
him what were I in his circumstances, and he in 



40 ADDRESS. 

mine, I would wish him to do to me, and therefore I 
will acquit him" ? The meaning of the precept is, 
that in onr conduct to others we should have a con- 
stant regard to the law of God, and act towards them 
with the same benevolence, truth, and justice, as we 
have a right to wish them to act towards us ; thus 
conscientiously performing to each other the duties 
belonging to our relative positions and conditions in 
life. The law of God, and not the desires of others is 
the rule of our conduct. A covetous man, through 
the inordinate love of money, runs deeply in debt to 
an honest man. He is exceedingly unwilling to pay 
the debt, and, though he has ample means to do so, 
yet most earnestly wishes his creditor to relinquish 
it. Does this precept require the honest and labo- 
rious creditor to do so, and to act on such reasonings 
as this : " This man who owes me a large sum of 
money, though he is able to pay it, yet wishes me to 
relinquish my claim to it ; true, indeed, it is the gain 
of years of honest industry and frugality, and the loss 
of it will reduce me to poverty ; but yet, if I were in 
his circumstances, and had his disposition, and if he 
were in my circumstances, I should have the same 
desires as his, and therefore it is my duty to comply 
with his desires, and relinquish my claim to the 
debt." If we should thus interpret and act on this 
precept, we should introduce a frightful state of so- 
ciety. The rule contemplates a continuance of its 



REASONS FOR THE PERMISSION OF SLAVERY. 41 

establislied order; that the parent shall retain his 
authority over his child, and the child revere and 
obey his parent ; that the husband shall be kind and 
faithful to his wife,- and the wife shall be affectionate 
and faithful to her husband ; that the master shall be 
just and merciful to his slave, and the slave be obe- 
dient and faithful to his master. 

In the Epistle of Paul to Philemon, we have an 
admirable illustration of this rule, as applicable to 
the case of a master and his runaway slave. Having 
declared his strong affection for Philemon, the high 
esteem in which he held his Christian character, and 
the joy and consolation he received from the accounts 
which he heard of his kindness to the people of God, 
and usefulness in the Church ; he, in the gentlest and 
kindest terms intercedes with him for Onesimus, his 
slave. He reminds Philemon of his authority, as an 
Apostle of Christ, to command him, but he tells him 
that for love's sake he would rather beseech him. 
He reminds him that he was Paul the aged. He had 
grown gray in the service of Christ, and in the midst 
of perils, and persecutions, and prisons, and poverty, 
and stonings, and scourges, and shipwrecks, had tri- 
umphantly carried forward the banner of the Cross, 
and won thousands to Christ. And who is he that 
this intrepid Apostle so humbly beseeches ? Is he a 
man who is claiming what does not belong to him ? 
who is insisting on what is wrong and sinful in itself? 



42 ADDRESS. 

And does Paul quail before this man? Does he 
who stood undaunted before Home's cruel tyrant, 
Nero, cower before an obscure church-member, who 
wickedly claims what it is sinful for him to possess ? 
Had this been the fact, had God's law forbidden Phil^ 
emon to hold his slave, would this holy Apostle, 
whose soul was adamant, and the lightning-flash of 
whose eye made Felix tremble, would he for an in- 
stant have shrunk from telling Philemon that he had 
no right to hold a slave ? that slaveholding is in itself 
a sin ? and if he had not relinquished all claim to the 
slave, would he not have denounced against him the 
severest vengeance of Almighty God ? This would 
be the course which some modern reformers would 
have prescribed to him ; but the course which he 
pursued was directly the opposite : and either this 
holy and inspired Apostle erred, or they are in 
grievous error. He knew that Philemon had rights, 
and he admitted those rights. He knew that, by the 
Eoman law, he had the power to punish his slave, 
not only with scourges, but with death, (Juvenal 6 : 
219.) He knew, too, that even a good man might be 
hurried to excesses by passion and resentment. He, 
therefore, used entreaties. He says : " Though I 
might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that 
which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather be- 
seech thee." Surely, if Philemon had one sjoark of 
noble, generous Christian feeling in his heart, he 



REASONS FOR THE PERMISSION OF SLAVERY. 43 

must have been astonished and humbled at such an 
address from such a one as he knew Paul to be, the 
aged Apostle of Christ, illustrious for his services and 
his sufferings, honored far above all others bv God ; 
who had already been rapt up into the third heaven, 
and now, close on the verge of life, stood ready, and 
waiting for the summons to ascend to his Saviour 
and his God, and receive his unfading crown of right- 
eousness — that he should tenderly and earnestly be- 
seech him ! And for whom does he beseech him ? 
Why, for his poor runaway slave, Onesimus. But 
the Apostle does not now speak of him as a slave ; 
he commends him as his son : thus intimating to 
Philemon, that if he had any respect or love for him, 
the father, he must show it by kindness for his sake 
to his son. " I beseech thee for my son, Onesimus^ 
whom I have begotten in my bonds ; whom I have 
sent again. Thou, therefore, receive him that is mine 
own bowels." What tenderness ! what meekness ! 
what humility ! But we can not pursue our remarks 
further on this wonderful epistle. 

Suf&ce it to say, that both Philemon, the master, 
and Onesimus, the slave, had been converted to Christ 
through the instrumentality of Paul, and he, remind- 
ing Philemon of this, exhorted him to receive his 
returned slave, "not now as a servant," (slave,) "but 
above a servant," (slave,) "a brother beloved espe- 
cially to me ; but how much more unto thee, both in 



44 ADDRESS. 

the flesh and in the Lord." No heathen, no infidel, 
ever could have acted thus from such principles, or 
have used such arguments and such motives to in- 
duce a master to treat with humanity his slaves. 
Yes ; there are Christians that are slaveholders ; there 
are slaves that are Christians ; and there are Chris- 
tians who are the friends of slaveholders and their 
slaves ; and who are willing, like Paul, to hail them 
as brethren in Christ Jesus, and to sit down with 
them at the sacramental table of their common Lord 
and Saviour. When Philemon received from Onesi- 
mus himself, and had read this epistle from Paul, 
with what emotions must he have received his slave ! 
Methinks that with gushing tears, and a throbbing 
heart, he clasped him in his arms, and welcomed him 
back to his home ; and when at the close of that day 
he and his household bowed in worship before God, 
he thanked and praised him with the liveliest grati- 
tude, and with his whole soul, for his conversion and 
return. You, Christian brethren, who yourselves 
have tasted of the grace and goodness of the Lord, 
can judge of his feelings. Through the benign in- 
fluences of the Gospel, the bitterness of servitude is 
lessened and sweetened, and '' the brother of low de- 
gree rejoices in that he is exalted, but the rich in that 
he is made low." (James 1 : 9.) Philemon after his 
conversion was a better master, and Onesimus after 
bis return was a better slave. 



REASONS FOR THE PERMISSION OF SLAVERY. 45 

The mitigating influence of Christianity was shown 
by the conduct of the first Christian emperor of 
Kome, Constantino the Great, who abolished the pun- 
ishment of slaves by crucifixion, and facilitated their 
manumission, which before was attended with great 
difiiculties and no small expense, but which he ren- 
dered easy, and no ways chargeable.^ 

I owe an apology to Synod for trespassing so long 
on their time ; but I trust that the importance of the 
subject will be my excuse. Permit me, however, to 
remark, that our Southern Christian brethren are 
fully impressed with their duty to communicate the 
Gospel to their slaves, and to give them suitab le re 
ligious instructions and privileges. None can more 
strongly insist on this duty than does the Southern 
Presbyterian Review^ a very able and excellent work, 
published at Columbia, S. C. It says, speaking of 
their slaves : 

" We still bear in mind that tliey are men, and have immortal souls ; 
that Christ shed his blood to redeem them as well as ourselves, and that 
we are put in charge of their training as that of our own children, for 
his kingdom of glory. It is, then, as plain as daylight that Christianity 
condemns all laws of the State, and all ideas and practices of individuals 
which put aside the immortality of the slave, and regard him in any 
other light than that of a moral and responsible fellow-creature of our 
own. We have no hesitation in declaring that we accord with Judge 
O'Neall in earnestly desiring the repeal, for example, of the law against 
teaching the slave to read, .... because, we conceive the law is 
both useless and hurtful. It is a useless law, for very many of our best 
citizens continually break it, or allow it to be broken in our families. 
Besides, very many of our slaves can read, and do teach and will teach 

* Ant. Uni. Hist., vol. 15, book 3, ch. 25, pp. 576, 5Y7. 



46 ADDEESS. 

others But the law is hurtful, inasmuch as it throws an 

obstacle in the way of that which it is plainly the wisdom of the State 
to foster and encourage, namely, the religious instruction of the young 
negro population." 

The writer asserts that " Christianity, while it civil- 
izes the slave, improves him in all parts of his char- 
acter. It takes away piecemeal the mass of barbarian 
ignorance, superstition, and corruption. It is advan- 
tageous to their whole physical, intellectual, and 
moral nature. It makes the slaves better, more 
intelligent, industrious, tractable, trusty — better men, 
better servants of God, better servants of man. . . 
And what is the effect of Christianity upon the mas- 
ter ? It softens his spirit in the sternness of law and 
discipline, while it confirms and establishes these just 
bonds. "Whatever was formerly harsh in the relation 
is gradually removed. Mutual intercourse is sweet- 
ened by it ; the master is no tyrant, the slave no 
rebel. " Authority ceases to be severe ; obedience ; 
ceases to be a task." {Southern Presbyterian Review^ 
vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 579-581.) "One thing," say they, 
addressing their fellow-citizens of the South, "is 
plain. It is ours to do the duties of intelligent, de- 
cided, fearless, conscientious Christian masters, and 
future events we may leave with Him who will direct 
them well." (p. 585.) 

Let us remember, that if we refuse to receive these 
churches into full communion with ourselves, we not 
only exclude the masters, but along with them their 



KEASONS FOR THE PERMISSION OF SLAVERY. 47 

slaves ; many of whom are members in full com- 
munion in the same churches with their masters, and 
sit down with them at the same sacramental table. 
It is a startling fact in the history of the Church in 
our country, that a Southern Aid Society has been 
formed in this city, (ITew-York,) avowedly for the 
purpose of supplying the deficiency of the American 
Home Missionary Society, who, it is said, forbear to 
send missionaries to our Southern and South- West- 
ern States, because they hold slaves. Can it be that 
they thus act because they have lost confidence in 
the ef&cacy of the Gospel, to remove and cure the 
ans and evils of the world, and have found an obsta- 
cle too great for it to overcome ? 

In reading the life of the late excellent Bishop 
White, of Pennsylvania, I have met with one of his 
letters, dated 1811, in which he says, that there then 
\ was " danger of the extinction of the profession of 
Christianity among a great proportion of the people 
of the United States." It would seem, from the 
course that the Home Missionary Society pursues 
towards them, that they are willing that this event 
should happen in our Southern States. What a con- 
trast to the conduct of Christ, who commenced his 
public ministry, by going among " the people who 
sat in darkness and in the region and shadow of 
death," (Matt. 4 : 15, 16,) and who came to save the 
chief of sinners. But they seem to think that our 



48 ADDRESS. 

Southern brethren are in a darkness so deep, and are 
sinners so great, that their condition is hopeless ; or 
that they deserve to die in their sins, without the 
Gospel. Dark, however, as they may consider their 
state to be, it is the firm conviction of the writer of 
this, and he speaks from personal knowledge, that 
the Gospel is preached in greater, and in many in- 
stances in far greater purity, and consequently with 
far greater power, in the pulpits of the Southern 
churches generally, than it is in a large number of 
the Northern churches. That some of the Southern 
masters are cruel to their slaves he does not deny. 
This, however, is only admitting that there are cruel 
men at the South, as well as at the JSTorth. But he 
confidently asserts, that public sentiment in the South 
is strong against such cruel masters ; and he believes 
that should such a scene occur among them as the 
death of " Uncle Tom," it would send a thrill of hor- 
ror, and produce as strong detestation throughout 
our Southern as it would throughout our Northern 
States. Our Southern brethren complain, and they 
complain with truth, that " so monstrous are the mis- 
representations which ignorance, malice, and fanati- 
cism are constantly and assiduously propagating in 
regard to this (the slave) relation among us, that if 
our names were not actually written under the pic- 
tures, we should never suspect that they were intend- i 
ed for us." Sure we are, that withholding the Gospel 



I 



REASONS FOR THE PERMISSION OF SLAVERY. 49 

from tliem, and refusing to hold ecclesiastical connec- 
tion with them, will produce no beneficial results, 
while it may be attended with most disastrous conse- 
quences. 

Hitherto we have, as a nation, run a career of 
unexampled prosperity ; and, bound together by that 
glorious Constitution, which, under the guidance of 
Heaven, the wisdom and patriotism of our fathers 
formed, we have reposed in the peace and the safety 
of a mighty empire, while a brilliant future opens 
before us. Not only do our own safety and happi- 
ness require the perpetuity of our Union, but true 
patriots and philanthropists of every nation desire 
with intense anxiety the success of our attempt 
at self-government, and the dissolution of our Union 
would be a fearful blow to the cause of freedom 
throughout the world. To ourselves it would bring 
! ruin, for it would at once plunge us into the horrors 
of a civil war. And for what ? Why, for the main- 
;|tenance of an infidel abstraction, concerning the inal- 
ienable rights of man, in what they call a state of 
] nature. Suppose, then, that the three millions of 
Southern slaves were all liberated at once, that the 
I wishes of the Abolitionist were carried out to their 
\ full extent, what would be their condition ? Would 
we join them to drive the Southern white men from 
their homes, and to seize their property, and so throw 
them out, with their families, houseless, impoverished, 



50 ADDRESS.' 

and helpless ? Or are the Abolitionists of the North 
prepared to receive and support these three millions 
of slaves? The greatest injustice and cruelty that 
could be done to them, would be simply to carry at 
once into execution that for which, not the slaves^ but 
the Abolitionists are contending. And shall we, for 
such a mad scheme, break up our confederacy and 
dissolve our Union? Where is the true-hearted 
American that advocates this ? Where is the Amer- 
ican so ungrateful to God for the blessings of the 
government under which he lives, and such a tiaitor 
to his country, as to consent to the breaking up of 
our Union, and consequently the destruction of our 
own happiness, and of our usefulness to the world, 
that now stand in bright prospect before us ? And 
what would be the gains of such traitorous and 
diabolical schemes, should they prove successful ? 
Who would be benefited by them ? Not one ; while 
all would be losers. None can predict what disasters 
and crimes and sorrows would follow an event so 
marked by folly and wickedness. All the denuncia- 
tions and slanders and bitterness of Abolitionists will 
never benefit the slaves of the South. These are not 
the methods which God employs to bless men. His ' 
Church is " the light of the world," is " the salt of 
the earth," by Avhich he instructs, purifies, and ele- 
vates them. 
Shall we then join hands with the Abolitionist, 



EEASONS FOR THE PERMISSION OF SLAVERY. 51 

and disown every Christian minister, and close every 

churcli at the South, and so far as in ns lies, abolish 

from among them the Sabbath, and the worship of 

God, and the sacred ordinances of our religion, and 

leave them, in spiritual matters, in a deeper than 

Egyptian darkness ; and this, too, for not doing what 

they can not do, emancipate at once all their slaves ? 

Our brethren of the Classis of North Carolina are the 

true friends of the slaves among whom they live, as 

well as of their masters; and are laboring, as the 

ministers of God, to convey to them the blessings of 

salvation. Christ has owned them as his ministers, 

and they come to us in the naiM- of Christ, seeking 

to be one with us. Shall we repel them ? Shall the 

Dutch Church, which has heretofore gloried in the 

reputation of its steadfastness in the truth and purity 

of the Gospel, and of its conservative influence amid 

the agitations and changes that have for years past 

shaken society, now abandon its conservative course, 

and forfeit its conservative character ? No. Let us 

take these, our Southern brethren, by the hand, and 

say to them: Christian brethren, we own and we 

bless you as such in the name of the Lord. We hail 

you in your good works, and in all your efforts to 

instruct and enlighten and Christianize the slaves that 

are among you. Our arms are open to receive you ; 

and, while we ask the blessing of God on you and 

your labors, we welcome you as one with us in 

Christ. 



APPENDIX 



I. SLAVERY IS ONE OF THE PENAL EFFECTS, OR A PART OF 

THE PUNISHMENT OF THE FALL AND THE 

WICKEDNESS OF MAN.* 

The present is not the original state of man. As 
he came fresh from his Creator's hands, he bore his 
Creator's likeness, and stood the head and the glory 
of our world, in the maturity of all his powers of 
mind and body — a perfectly wise, holy, and happy 
being. The inspired writer informs us that : " God 
created man in his own image : in the image of God 
created he him : male and female created he them." 

From this high state man fell by sin. Through 
the temptation of Satan he deliberately broke a posi- 
tive command of God, and thus brought upon him- 
self and his descendants death and all our woes. 
The whole history of the fall teaches us that the 
government of God is administered on the principle 
that man's right to life and all its enjoyments depends 
on his perfectly obeying God's law; and that the 
transgression of God's law deprives him of his right 

* See page 29. 



§4 SLAVERY, 

to life and its enjoyments -; that holiness and happi- 
ness, sin and wretchedness are inseparably connected. 
He sinned and forfeited his right to life and the 
enjoyments of life. Yet God spared his life, becanse- 
of his designs of mercy towards him, though he pro- 
nounced sentence on him. 

The sentence on the serpent, reached,, we doubt 
notj that old serpent, the Devil, who used that crea- 
ture as his instrument, and denoted that he should 
sink into a lower state of degradation than that in 
which he was before -^ that his pursuits and gratifica- 
tions should be abject and base ; and that like the 
serpent he should be the constant and deadly enemy 
of man. 

The sentence pronounced on the man condemned 
him to labor, aiid sorrow, and death. The curse de- 
nounced on the ground for man's sake robbed it of its 
fertility, and caused thorns and thistles spontaneously 
to grow out of it, rendering incessant toil and labor 
necessary that he might procure from it food for his 
sustenance. Here is the origin of his subjection to 
labor. As the punishment of his sin, God said to 
him : "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat breads 
till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast 
thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt 
thou return." Here too is the incidental cause of 
slavery. To escape the labor and toil to which all 
are condemned, the strong and powerful have com- 
pelled the weak and debased to labor for them. 



THE PUNISHMENT OF MAN's SIN. 55 

The sentence denounced on the woman placed her 
in subjection to man. It was this : " Thy desire shall 
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." 
(Gen. 3 : 16.) The marginal reading is : " Thy desire 
shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall rule over 
thee." The famous Jewish Rabbi, Aben Ezra, ex- 
plains the term tesJiooqa, as meaning obedience^ instead 
of desire. The words would then be thus translated : 
"Thy obedience shall be to thy husband, and he 
shall rule over thee." Professor Stuart, late of An- 
dover, considers this as the correct translation of the 
passage (See Heb. Chrest. p. 3, Kotes on No. 12) : 
Originally woman was the equal of man. But her 
sin was more aggravated than his in two respects : 
She was first in committing it, and then tempted him 
to it. Her punishment was therefore greater than 
his. She was subjected to the pains of child-birth, 
and to the rule of man, while authority over her was 
given to him. 

There can be no greater mistake than to suppose 
that the state of woman in other countries is the same 
as in ours. We must look to other parts of the 
world to understand the severity of the sentence 
which was passed upon her. 

The power of the father and the husband over the 
daughter and the wife, in the times of the Patriarchs 
and under the Mosaic dispensation, was far greater 
than it is with us, for then fathers had the power of 



r" 1..1. « 1. u I , 



selling their 'laughters for wivce, and wivce who 
were thus purchased wcro too apt to bo regarded ;; 
mere servants by their husbands. (Gen. 29 : l\5-27 
34 : 11, 12. Joshua 15 : 1(3. 1 Sam. 18 : 23-2(3.) 

A woman in her youth who was in lier father' 
house, could not bind herself by a vow without her 
father's eonsent If ho heard and disallowed her 
vow, it could not stand, and the Lord forgave her, 
because her father disiiUowcd her. The same was 
the case with her husband. (Num. 30: ' i 

Ilebrew women were also subject to inueh h;irihship 
through polygamy, concubinage, and the right of 
divorce, which belonged to their husband. 

It is, however, in heathen and savage oountrica 
that the rule of man over the woman has been most 
fearfully abused. There, instead of being his beloved 
com]3auion, she has been his wretched slave. No 
bondage among men Ls deeixir, no sullcrings arc more 
cruel than she has received from the man who ought 
to have been her firmest protector, and bcr highest 
earthly joy. But we need not refer to the heathen 
to find instances of deep oppression and cruelty. 
Should every poor, heart-broken, degraded and 
crushed in spirit wife or daughter in the proud city 
of Kew-York, come in one body to tell of the abom- 
inable abuse of their power by drunken or dissipated 
husbands and fathers, the scenes of cruelty and horror 
that they would reveal, would, we doubt not, equal 



TTIR Pf'VI.«rT¥KVT riv y ^>-'a pfy 57 

•joua crucaicd J I on tnuir ^-^ 

L'^f ;. j ui i;jc most cruel inafiurs ci the South, iut 
where is the Uw that provides a punisliment any 
way i»roportione<l to iho atrocity of Ujc crimes of 
Uicso won^» llian heathen men? Where arc the 

philftr*^ - • ^^ are dcriously Ui^ - ■ - to protect 

theftj -j'oiiii-j .• u women from thru <i ir\ wror - ' 
^'' • T .11 yfQ jij. -. - :. . .1. . marriage oonnc\.".« 

.4.^ . n .1, lal, bcc,iu-- ' i liiv J. " • ^ 'v^ • h it is " •^' 

j^» M,, 7 . .. V ..rir tol»' ^- " .tOftU.. 

tli», ^.»i iii.y blcifc- .i,»,v^itho ruiii-i 

of the fall? Ncttlier m.^j ^\ iv.ison against the 
relation of master an«l sUve, because the baJ master, 
'•^'c the Ixfl hui<l»aii«l, abu.'v.'H hb jx>wer. 

I 'or bo it fn>m us to ti\i •• ♦^ ■• the relation between 
Uie husband and wife is ^i......w to that which cxIaIs 

between the master and the slave, or that tlio subjec- 
tion of the wife to tlie husl>and is of th«* w.,,... l^ind as 
that of the slave to the master. The ni... . ... c union 

makes the man an<l wonum ono— one flesh, one botly, 
unite*! by the closest bonds; — it ought always to bo 
fonncd and cemenUxl by love founded on the hight-^st 
esteem, so that it will be the delight of .each to pro- 
mote the happiness of the other. We have adduced 
the case of the sentence pronounced on tlie first 
woman, to show that subjection to the rule of another 
is a part of the puni.shment of the fall and sin of man. 
Tl;i^ snV»iootion i.^ fuUv rcco:rnizo<l under the G<>s|X'l 



58 SLAVERY, 

dispensation — '' Wives, submit yourselves unto your 
own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord." (Colos. 3 : 18.) 
" Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, 
as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of 
the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the church ; 
and he is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, as the 
church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be 
subject to their own husbands in every thing." (Eph. 
5 : 22-24.) These last words, " in every thing," 
mean in every thing lawful, for neither a husband 
nor any earthly power has the right to command any 
one to do what is sinful.* Hence the power of the 
husband is limited by the law of God, and he is 
taught that his rule should be a rule of love. It 
says : '' Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ 
also loved the church, and gave himself for it. . . . 
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies : 
he that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man 
ever yet hated his own flesh ; but nourisheth and 
cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church." (Eph. 5 : 
28, 29.) 

The influence of the Gospel and the Church of 
Christ in elevating the woman to her proper station, 
and her proper influence, is clearly shown among us. 
Though there are many bad husbands, and many 
wretched wives, this is not the general state of things, 

* Sec too 1 Tim. 2 : 11, 12. TituB 2 : 5. 1 Peter 8 : 1, C. 



.^ 



THE PUNISHMENT OF MAN's SIN. 59 

No where is woman more loved or honored. When 
adorned with intelligence, and prudence, and piety, 
she is the light and the joy of the household. As 
the wife, she is the companion and the counsellor of 
the man, his surest and his strongest friend, and the 
source of his highest earthly bliss ; — or she is his 
darling daughter, his loveliest ornament, and the 
pride of his heart ; — or she is his dear and affectionate 
sister, the companion of his boyhood, and the coun- 
sellor of his riper years ; — or she is his mother, his 
fond and tender and venerated mother, who in the 
helplessness of his infancy was ever ready to sacrifice 
her comfort for his ; his first instructor and guide in 
all that was good ; who on the Sabbath led his totter- 
ing footsteps to the sanctuary, and instilled into his 
mind his earliest sentiments of piety ; who with ten- 
der solicitude restrained his wayward passions, and 
soothed his sorrows, and ministered to his joys, and 
trained him for all that is high and holy. Happy is 
that people that has such women, and thanks to God, 
there are many such in our land ; and they have been 
made such by the grace of God through the Gospel 
of Christ. They are crowns to their husbands. 
Their price is far above rubies. To all the charms of 
beauty, and polish and elegance and sweetness of 
manners, and high intellectual endowments and ac- 
complishments, they add the higher charms of all the 
Christian virtues, the beauties of holiness, and the 



QQ SLAVERY, 

adornments of piety. In the dark season of adver- 
sity, such a woman shines beauteous as the morning 
star cheering us vrith the assurance that light, and 
peace, and day are at hand. Of all earthly objects 
she is the loveliest, and is but a little lower than an 
angel of God. And what has made her such ? what 
has given to her this moral as well as intellectual 
elevation and grandeur ? what has raised her so high 
above yonder ignorant, debased pagan woman, the 
slave and not the companion of her husband ? We 
repeat it, the Gospel and the Church of Christ ; and 
wherever these come, they como with blessings. 
They elevate the slave, while they humanize and 
sanctify his master. They, and only they, are the 
true remedy for the evils of slavery, and all the penal 
consequences of sin and the fall. 

2. Our second proof that slavery is the punishment 
of sin is drawn from Gen. 9 : 24, 25, where the sacred 
historian having mentioned the wickedness of Ham, 
the father of Canaan, says : " And Noah awoke from 
his wine, and knew what his younger son had done 
unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan ; a ser- 
vant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." The 
term " servant of servants," means a servant of the 
lowest and vilest kind. 

The term cursed, (aroor,) here applied by Noah to 
Canaan, and afterwards by Joshua to the Gibeonites, 
(Joshua 9 : 23,) denotes one who is condemned to the 



THE PUNISHMENT OF MAn's SIN. 61 

penalty of having broken God's law ; or subjected to 
the punishment of sin. (See Gen. 3 : 14, 17, and 4 : 11. 
Deut. 27 : 15-26. Gal. 3 : 10.) The particular pun- 
ishment, therefore, to which Canaan was condemned, 
was that he should be the most debased of slaves. 
The term slave^ as now distinguished by usage from 
the term servant^ more exactly expresses the meaning 
of the original Hebrew word. Gibbon informs us 
that '' the national appellation of the slaves (Sclavo- 
nians) has been degraded by chance or malice from 
the signification of glory to that of servitude." In 
his notes he informs us that '' Jordan subscribes to 
the well-known and probable derivation" of the word 
slave, " from 8lava^ laus, gloria^^^ and that " this con- 
version of a national into an appellative name appears 
to have arisen in the eighth century, in the Oriental 
France, where the princes and bishops were rich in 
Sclavonian captives. 

It is scarcely necessary to observe that by Canaan 
is here meant the posterity of Canaan, it being very 
usual iu prophecy to use the name of the father for 
his posterity. Nor is it at all necessary for us to en- 
quire why the curse is pronounced on Canaan, when 
Ham his father is mentioned as having sinned ; nor 
whether all the descendants of Ham were included in 
the curse. It is sufficient for us to remark that Noah, 
by inspiration of God, pronounced it on Canaan as 
the punishment of his sin, and is one more proof 



62 SLAVERY, 

that subjection to servitude is one of the punishments 
which God inflicts on the sins of men. 

The Canaanites were among the first to introduce 
idolatry, and they were idolaters of the worst kind. 
Their character is thus given by God himself: 
" Every abomination to the Lord which he hateth 
have they done unto their gods ; for even their sons 
and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to 
their gods." (Deut. 12 : 31.) They were as licentious 
as they were cruel, and the very worst crimes were 
common among them ; till at length God in his wrath 
gave them up to be destroyed by the Israelites. (Lev. 
18 : 24, 25, and 20 : 22. Deut. 9 : 4, and 18 : 12.) 

When the Israelites under Joshua had invaded 
Canaan, the inhabitants of Gibeon, alarmed at the 
overthrow of Jericho and Ai, disguised themselves, 
and having deceived the Isrtielites by pretending that 
they had come from a far country, persuaded Joshua 
and the princes of Israel to make a league with them 
to let them live. This league they confirmed by an 
oath. When three days afterwards the Israelites 
reached their country and discovered their deceit, 
they were highly displeased, and would have put 
them all to the sword had not Joshua and the princes 
resolutely interposed to prevent it. But though they 
spared their lives, they took them to be slaves. 
Joshua said to them : '' ISTow therefore ye are cursed ; 
and there shall none of you be freed from beiug bond- 



THE PUNISHMENT OF MAn's SIN. 63 

men, and hewers of wood, and drawers of water, for 

the house of my God And Joshua made 

them hewers of wood, and drawers of water, for the 
congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, even 
unto this day, in the place which he should choose." 
(Josh. 9 : 23, 27.) The curse of servitude denounced 
on the Canaanites by Noah was now literally fulfilled 
by this action of Joshua ; and it deserves especial 
notice that they were made slaves in the House, at 
the Altar, and for the purpose of assisting in the 
worship of God. But would God have permitted 
and sanctioned this if slaveholding is in itself a sin ? 
"We think he would not. 

3. The Israelites, while they kept the covenant 
between them and God, and truly worshipped and 
served him, were permitted to buy bondmen and 
bondwomen, that is slaves^ of the heathen that were 
round about them. (Lev. 25 : 44:-46.) But the Lord 
warned them that if they apostatized from him, then, 
as one of the punishments of their sin, they, like the 
heathen, should be sold into slavery : '* The Lord 
shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the 
way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no 
more again : and there ye shall be sold unto your 
enemies for hondmen and bondwomen^ and no man shall 
huy you:' (Deut. 28 : 68.) 

This threatening was partially fulfilled after the 
Israelites became subject to kings. Towards the 



C4 SLAVERY, 

clasc of Samuel's life they insisted that a king shoul-i 
be made lor them like all the nations. They doul-t- 
less were impatient of the strict enforcement of th- 
law of God by Samuel, and were anxious to have 
among themselves the pleasures and the splendors of 
idolatry and royalty. They were guilty, though not 
of oi)en, yet of heart ai>ostiL*<y. The Ix)rd ihiTi-fon* 
commanded Samuel to hearken to tlieir voice in ull 
they should say to him, '* for they liave not ffjectLsl 
thee, but they have RjecU-il me, that I should not 
reign over them.'' The Lonl through the proplui 
Ilosea, remonstnitirg with Israel for their sins among 
them, selects this, : .d soys to them : *' I gave thee a 
king in mine anger, and took him away in my 
wrath." (IJo.«H.'a 13: 11.) lie cummandeil Samuel to 
protest solemnly to them, and show them the manner 
of tlic king that should rule over them; that they 
should be his servants, and that he would cruelly 
oppress them ; that he would take from them their 
SODS and daughters and degrade them to servile 
oflices and em}iloyments, and rob them of their 
property and give it to others. (1 Sam. 8 : 4-18.) 

The threatening in Deut. was more fully accom- 
plished in the Babylonian, and afterwards in the 
Roman captivity of the Jews. Josephus informs us 
that in the reigns of the two first Ptolemies, many of 
the Jew.^ were slaves in Egypt. And when Jeru- 
salem was taken by Titus, of the captives who were 



THE ri'NlSHMKNT CF MAJl's SIN. 65 

above Bcvcnlccn years he sent many bound to the 

works in Egypt ; those under seventeen were - 

but M little care was taken of ihc»c captives that 

eleven thousand of them perished for want. The 

market/i were quite overstocked with them, so that 

Josephufl iia}*s in anothi-r place that they were sold 

with their wivcfl and children at the lowest price ; 

then' bcin^^ many to be sold and but few purchasers. 

W'v Ic-arn from St. Jerome, that ** after their 

last overthrow by Adrian, many thousands of thcin 

re s«»M, and those who could not be sold were 

inH]»orte<l into Kgypt, and jv by shipwreck 

or famine, or were massacred by the mhabitants. 

We think that wc have now prosente<l slavery and 

alavr; ' in their true and scriptural Had 

••n not I from God tlicir Creator, had they 

taine<l holjn««jw of heart and life, and obeyed and 

•rshipped Ooil, they would not have known slavery. 

But they have sinner*, and when they sink into gro«s 

impiety, and i<lolalry, and wickedncsB^ as their pun- 

luncnt they are subjected to slavery. 



II. oRioiK or SLArmr. 



When and : . ry lirst began are enquiries 

that arc difliculi t vcr, though wc know that it 

^as existed from tm iwmutcst posterity. 



''^^ TIIK OIUGIN OF SLA\ 

it WiL-i Uil (J|*iiii«jii iiuiU V\ lliC tUiClCUl OJ 

«>fii« men are slaves by nature Amtotlo lays i: 
as an aphorism, tliat "not* :a mor t 

nature than that thoso wh I id u iji 

and prudence, and arc r^ ' ' • r 

•li.slancc, should rule and t-jairui inucsc wuo ai -s 
liaj^py in these adv: • • ^^ *^ •' !. 

those whose bodilj 6t aua vi-ur t :i 

to put the commandi ui v.i^iermcn in 
by nature framed and ' ' ' " 1 

obedience. From this coiiiuiuuju ui uii::^;> Ui 
erci;,ni ami the slave receive cqoiil advi. 
benefits and the conveniences arc alike on buiu .- 
This sentiment may be received as a philof»o|>i*ci s 
drcmn, wholly inapplicable to actual life. If 
riority of intellect, prudence, and f t eiiUi.o 

their possessors to enslave and rule over iac>sc wlio 
arc without these endowmentfi, then, since there arc 
many masters who are destitute of them, and i- 
slaves who possess them, there would bo a con^u:.: 
change of places and conditions; the intelligent an<l 
sagacious slave would become master, and the stupid 
and unwise master would become the slave. Such 
changes could not be made without bitter strifes and 
endless confusion. 

A much more probable opinion of the origin of 
slavery, is that which derives it from the necessity 
that is laid upon man to support himself by labor. 



Tlir. OKHilN OK SLAVi 



Tlius as wc -'^' 


'• '■ 


iflhmeat of iltn < 


• 


defM-ndfl on • .»ion of j 


, Uis\i \ 


teach l.iwfi;! 




le<l he do* 




Qor art • oi 


U. U> Xk 


be' Tiio li, 


i»'. 


pr uf iH^ 


il 


• uf lUlllg«» 


fiance ; 


tho f 


I 


Uii • ' are | 


aiiU ; 


highiv 1 • " " 


* 


pcrs'.i:i 1' i I Aiiil 4.- 


a U> iaU>r lui I 


on ro 


.1 


for tii« ir tttUif. Wi.-a i:..- 


.,: • Uid : 


lo bo udvaiitiigooUA to 




•he niraii«T iriba wcro i 




Uioins^'K 


16 Uj \ v Ul UiC 


gn-ntcr. u:;.- i 


•. UiC iaiur il ' ' 



cnL'a::o u> HU|»j»ly U^t^i iu«U a^l c<>iiv< i of living, 

and iho funner " " : bind lhcmi<clveii lo undertake 
all i>ro|»cr labors auU enr ' m iheir palrona 

should d- So that lUo i.r&i nikj of servitude is 

owing lo the voluntary consent of the p*x>ror and 
more hclplcjw j>crsona, and is founded upon that com- 
mon form of contract, lio ut facias ; I promise to give 
you constant sxtstenancf^ upon cf> ' ' yon assist me 
xritJk hour constttnt xcorky (Pul<.ua<'ri, Book 6, ch. 
8. i^ 4.) 



TiS I in: ni!H:iN ov slavkuv. 

Ah kings and govemnicnUi grew stronger m |K)wer, 
and aspccially when they became dcs|)otic, the Bu\y- 
jection of those who were thus employed by princes, 
and nobles, and men of high authority and largo 
wealth, became greater, till they were reduced to a 
state of entire dependence upon them, and were com- 
pelled by the civil i>ower to yield obedience to them. 
But this stato of things arose out of the apostasy of 
men from God, and their ignorance, improvidence, 
and wickiMlne.ss. 

We lH.«lieve, however, that the chief source of 
slavery was war, and that it arose from the custom of 
reducing to servitude captives who were taken in 
war. From the manner in which Xoah sjn'aks in 
the curse which ho denounced on Canaan, it seems 
that slavery had existed before the flood ; and this is 
rendered probable by the corrupt stato of the world, 
which wa.s " Tilled with violence." 

After the flood the first wars ui aiiU'iUiiy aj)j>car 
to have been carried on with terrible ferocity. It 
was an established law among the nations, that the 
victor in battle liad a right to take away the life of 
his enemy who was at his mercy ; but if he spared 
his life he had a right to reduce him to servitude and 
claim him as his slave. Clarkson, in his " Treatise 
on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species," 
supposes that this enslaving of prisoners of war had 
its origin " from the days of Nimrod, who gave rise 






711 c «»Tnr.T\" or ?T.AVEUV 



r>9 



probably to that ins v of victory and 

fcrvituac which wo fimi -' the nations of an- 

tiquity, and which lia.'* cxwi^^l uniformly since in one 
country or another to the preacnt day." He (\\\oi^ 
X«-noj.hon a§ nayin^r • t was a law cslabli-' 

from time immeinorinl. anlMll^ the nalioiiii of aniiq- 

ly, to oblige thum? lo undon^'o the acvcrities of 
-y had thrown intolhcir hands.'* 

... l{..m*n lawyer. P*.m|M>niius ' •* tbe worxl 
A nruj, a Hcrvant, from the verb jm^, i ^^^^ '« 

'1 hirt ruMiom pn^Uih'iV had lU origm ui l>oiicy, li 

,t in humanity. The Icadcm of hosulo bandu or 

rmien U'^mn to jK-rccivc tliat their wealth and power 

,.,uld I- *a«cd by r ' captiven of aa 

any as they could, in»U>ail of j them to death, 

Mby eilh.'r • in lueir own service 

• ictn tti* ulavij* lo titiicrs. 

In the earlv ag»-s. after the Hood, a iar^'c p-ri. i 

the human race lived in what is called the pastoral 
•at.", in which their chief wealth «■ ' <1 in llock^ 
und henls and slaves. They were ciiviictl into small 
tril>es, or live<l in small cities, under their respective 
chiefs or kinp*. These neighboring trilxs or cities 
vero often engage<l in war, and made sudden preda- 
tor v attacks uj>on each other. 

Such attacks producc<l retaliation, an<l the injured 
tri)w>s in their turn atUirkcd an.l i>crha]»s vanrpiished 



7U 



Tiii- uiii.,i.N or SLAVERY. 



the trilxjs that had injured them. But frcquc! tl 
they could not recover either the persons or -h', 
property which the«e tribes had destroyed. The < A 
restitution which they could obuiin w^ to keep tl :', 
captives as slaves, and to coini>el them to labor i 
them as a comixinsatioD, both for sparin- their h 
and for the losses which they had t .]. St. 

probably, was originally one chief source of ahivc . 
It Nva.s a mitigation of the horrors of war, and sub ■ 
tuted subjection to servitude instead of death, .• 
this, until comparatively a very re .ate, waL • 

settled law of nationa - It was so called from t 
universal concurrence of nations in Uic custom. : : 
w;is established on the principle of Uu: Hght of or 
the victora considering the fact of their having 
the lives of the vanquished, when they could ha 
talvcn tliem by the laws of war, as giving them 
right to claim or sell them as their slaves."* 

War then has been in innumerable instances the 
immediate cause of slavery. But the Scriptures 
teach us that wai^ arise from the malignant passions 
of men : " From whence come wars and lightings 
among you ? come they not hence, even of your lust^ 
that war in your members?" (Jas. 4: 1) The«;e 
unholy lusts, these malignant passions would not 
have existed in the soul had not man ai>ostatized 



TUB OMhJIS OF 8LAVERT. 71 

War ij lijt ouiy one oi iiic soruii calaiu- 

la wnicb a nation can be '■ V bnt it is nl^to 

ui iiio puntj^bmcntii which Ouu intlicts for na* 

Tcr. 15: 2,8, and 24: 10. Ezek. 14: 

-1.; 

ri; oi ; 

J Li V « i ' . ui itiuiatry, or Uic liaviug ui 

)icr Ooa luau luu - !r To Um < id not 

r to bow ' lo or scnro : nr 

M, IS 
am a jr.. 

*^ • upon Uiv « ui.'ii'-;. I. :.;•_» mg ujiru una iuuitii 
lof th. •' • ^ '' 

IB not •■'liiv 1..^* u •! i^i I' >''VJ3 riijj uui iL !.•< 

• of every oihcr fin. As iui ju' ' 

'•••'''■• ^' - •' ' . ..| u 

.iiit i'<t(ii«..i».' II. ^I't luu lloiy 

•^ «'m over to a i- ^.M-ato miud ; to 
^ ^,. T ..,^...-. . * , .1... . ;^. .. . . ... 

ni' • .i 'I 

1 ■ ' ■' liJ • 'i i'i''..iii > r^"' iur» i«» ii.i^«- i^v> u 

'"^ ' ' :..;».. • » ^vaf and to lasciv- 

i^ . wv.^-. .; .- 1. ', , ...li.- .. .-. I., wholo law of God, 
for it toach«« men, instead of supremely lovinir, to 
hate and reject the true God, and to r-"«'-i -'lier 
tnvn with enmity, or with unholy lust 

The brutal ignorance and tiie moral degradation 

lii'ii U'^'K'n fill' lii'\t 'i.«f I W'''^'^ viiTil: W:'< fi'irrii] • 



i I THE OHiniN- OF SLAVKKY. 

c8|>ccially llic hubjecliuti of woiiuui to her bruUil lui^ 
ter, and the violation of her dearest rights were coi 
plete. Fornication, ix)ljgamy, divorce, adultery, 
other forms of sensuality too abominable to be mea< 
tioncd, were not only common, but they wort 
tioned by their religion, and their laws, and ihS] 
example of their greatest statesmen, and philosophei 
and priests. The temple was a d:irk and dea '" 
fountain of pollution. The homo and the fan 
received and extended this jx>llution. God was 
suited and provoked in the one; the wife was debn> i 
and oppressctl in the other. The very fountains of 
all true knowledge of God and holiness of heart and 
life were poi.^^ned, and universal moral desolation 
and death were the consequence. Listen to the char- 
actiT which the Ajxjstlc Paul, by inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost, has given of the heathen world : " Evea 
as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, 
God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do thnso 
things which arc not convenient: being filled with 
;ill unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covet- 
ousncs.s, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, 
deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of 
God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil 
things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, 
covenant-breakers, without natural alVection, implaca- 
ble, unmerciful : who, knowing the judgment of 
God, that they who commit such things are worthy 



THE OIIIGIX or SLAVKKV 73 

of death, not only do the aamc, but have pleasure in 
them who do them." (Rom. 1 : 2S-31.) 

Such was the character of the heathen world M 
dra\rn by inspiration of Ood. They were partakeri 
of the .•yuno natare, and made by God, •* of one blood 
with ourBelTca," ondoweii with immortal 90qLi, can- 
didates for everlasting happtnom or everlasting wo. 
But they wilfully rejcctci the God who made them, 
and tunicil amde to idols; they stiflci the light of 

. nature and of (v»ii.Hciono' ; they cherished the vilcrt 

: luffta and lived in the most criminal praotioea; and in 
his ri^'htoous jud^rment God uaed them as the instni- 

I inent/< of it: on one another his punishment of 

their sins. Not tliat all were ecjually punished, or 
that the full measure of punishment was inflicted on 
thot)e who suflcred. It b< an old remark, that God 
punishcrs in this life in varions wayii and difTerent 

. degrees, iho sins of some men, to teach them that he 
oxercist^s a government over them hero ; while ho j Her- 
mits even the greater sins of other men to iKiSH with- 
out present punishment, to warn men of a judgment 
iHrcaflcr. On some men tlieir crimes bring poverty • 
on others they bring disease ; on others the loss of 
reputation, of influence, of authority ; on others im- 
prisonment in jaihj and penitentiiirics ; on others, 
[Kxially on nations, for national siiLs, wiir, with all 
itii lotkSt« and horrum, famine, jH.8tilcnce, civil dissen- 
sion, the loss of freedom ; and where iJuIatry aiiJ 



74 THE ORIGIN OF SLAVERY. 

polygamy slied their blighting influence, there wick- 
ed man not only enslaves and tyrannizes over de, 
graded woman, but enslaves and tyrannizes over and 
sells into bondage his fellow-man. God uses wicked 
men to punish the crimes of other wicked men. He 
leaves them to the dominion of their own wicked 
passions, and then urged on by malice and hatred 
they war against and enslave each other. Where 
men are enlightened and virtuous ; where the Gospel 
of Christ sheds its benign influence ; where, as in 
Paradise, one man and one woman are joined in con- 
nubial bliss and united in the worship of the one 
only true and living God; where the Bible is the 
guide of the family, and is revered in the sanctuary 
as the inspired word of God, the only perfect and 
infallible rule of faith and practice; there men are 
free ; and he who gives the Gospel to the slave is his 
true and his best friend. 



III. PRESENT STATE OF THE AFKICANS. 

It may perhaps be objected that the heathen world 
has felt the influence of the progressive spirit of our 
age, and is not now as corrupt as it was in ancient 
times. It is not so with that portion of Africa from 
which slaves have been brought to our country. 

Rev. John Leighton Wilson, who is now one of 
the secretaries of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign 



PRESENT STATE OF THE AFRICANS. 75 

Missions, and who during several years was a mis- 
sionary in Africa, has published a very interesting 
statement of the Moral Condition of Western Africa, 
in the Southern Presbyterian Eeview for March, 1848. 
Captain Canot, too, in his "Twenty Years of an 
African Slaver," has not only confirmed the state- 
ments of Mr. Wilson, but has mentioned many facts 
to illustrate them. We borrow from them the fol- 
lowing account of the condition of the native Afri- 
cans. 

Mr. Wilson says : " It is a common remark of the 
present day, that the heathen world is as depraved 
now as it was in the days of Paul. Hut this does not 
meet the case. It is worse now than it was then. 
There are but few modern missionaries who cannot 
testify to the existence of forms of human depravity 
among them, of which there is no mention in the 
Apostle's category, and of which perhaps there was 
no existence in his day. . . The depth of infamy 
and pollution to which heathen tribes have already 
reduced themselves, can scarcely be conceived." 

The inhabitants of Western Africa are somewhat 
above the savage state. They live in villages con- 
taining from two or three hundred to eight or ten 
thousand inhabitants, which are scattered over the 
country in every direction, at the distance of two, 
three, or four miles apart. Their habitations are of 
the meanest kind. These villages are entirely inde- 



76 PRESENT STATE OF THE AFRICANS. 

pendent of each other ; while their internal govern- 
ment is the extreme, either of democracy or of 
despotism. Extreme ignorance and dissoluteness of 
manners prevail, producing anarchy, oppression, and 
constant insecurity of life. 

Their religion consists of the worst forms of idol- 
atry. They believe that there is one great Supreme 
Being who made all things ; but they deny that he 
exercises any government over the affairs of men, or 
takes any interest in them. They attribute to him 
the same corrupt passions as belong to men, and 
think him altogether such an one as themselves. 

Canot informs ns that during his travels on the 
continent of Africa, he always found the negro a 
believer in some superior creature and controlling 
power, except the Bagers, who believe that death is 
total annihilation. The Mandingoes and Fullahs are 
Mahometan. The other tribes are heathen, who 
worship spirits, some of whom are good and some 
evil, and who they believe control the affairs of men. 
The evil spirits are supposed to cause war, famine, 
drought, pestilence, and all manner of calamity to 
which men are subject. They are therefore more 
particular about worshipping them than the good 
spirits, through fear of provoking their displeasure 
and thereby bringing upon themselves evil. 

Canot gives an account of a yearly sacrifice of 
human beings by the king of Dahomey, Avhich he 



PKESENT STATE OF THE i^FKlCANS. 77 

was invited to attend. " The sacrifice was delayed 
on account of the scarcity of victims, though orders 
had been given to storm a neighboring tribe to make 
up three hundred slaves for the festival." In this 
bloody tragedy, which lasted five days, women were 
the principal actors. On the first day they dragged 
with hellish ferocity and delight, fifty captives from 
the place of their confinement, and slaughtered them 
in the most brutal manner, and when these bloody 
rites were over they were dismissed, " reeking with 
rum and blood." During the whole of the sacrifice 
the most shocking atrocities were committed. He 
gives another account of an annual sacrifice of a 
young woman, which he witnessed at Lagos ; the de- 
sign of which was to appease a demon or evil spirit. 
The whole business was conducted in a way intended 
to strike with awe and terror the ignorant Africans, 
while the king and the Juju priest, who were the 
principal actors in this scene of cruelty and blood, 
were guilty of consummate artifice and deception. 

Their religion sheds no purifying or elevating in* 
fluences over their minds, but cherishes and strength- 
ens every impure and debased passion. Mr. "Wilson 
having informed us that they worship devils, says : 
"If it be true, and it undoubtedly is, that our moral 
characters constantly assimilate to the character of 
the Being we worship, it follows as a necessary con- 
sequence, that African character has been approxi- 



78 PRESENT STATE OF THE AFIUCANS. 

mating for centuries to a model the most hideously 
immoral and depraved the human imagination can 
conceive. And here is at once the secret cause of all 
that cunning, duplicity, and cruelty that have ever 
characterized this people. The lineaments of the 
divine image have been effectually effaced from their 
hearts, whilst those of the spirits of the infernal pit 
have been drawn with too bold a hand to be mistakeil 
or misapprehended." 

Another form of their religion is Fetichism. A 
fetidly which is also called a gregree^ or a jeujeu^ is a 
piece of wood, or the horn of a goat, or the hoof of 
an antelope, or a piece of metal, or of ivory, which 
has been consecrated by a native priest. This is 
worn about the person, or set up in some convenient 
place ; and the greatest confidence is placed in its 
power to avert evil or to procure good. If, however, 
evil overtakes any of them, their fetiches that they 
then have are thrown away as bad, but their confi- 
dence in the efficacy of fetiches is not at all impaired, 
and they forthwith procure new ones. 

They are firm believers in Witchcrscft; and the 
powers which are ascribed to one who is supposed to 
possess it fall little short of omnipotence. " He exer- 
cises unlimited control, not only over the lives and 
destiny of his fellow men, but over the wild beasts of 
the woods, over the sea and dry land, and over all the 
elements of nature. There is nothinp^ too hard for his 



I'JiESENT STATE OF TIJE AFKICAKS. 79 

machinations. Sickness, poverty, insanity, arid al- 
most every evil incident to human life, arc ascribed 
to witchcraft." The imputation of possessing this art 
is greatly dreaded, since it affixes a serious stigma to 
the man's character, and yet any man is liable to be 
charged with it. Every death among them is ascribed 
to it — consequently some one must be guilty of the 
wicked deed ; and a brother, a sister, a father, and 
even a mother may be accused^ and woe to him that 
is accused, for he will be punished with death. 

With the exception of those who have been taught 
by the Missionaries on the coast, they have no know- 
ledge of books; but are sunk in the grossest ignorance. 

Polygamy prevails among them, and the import- 
ance of a man in society is determined by the number 
of his wives. Every one, therefore, takes to himself 
as many as he can, without any affection for them, or 
regard to their quiet or comfort or support, while he 
tyrannizes over them, and by his superior strength, 
compels them to obey. '' Perhaps the strongest de- 
testation that ever occupies the heart of an African 
woman is towards the companion of her bosom and 
the father of her children. . . . Strifes, jealousies 
and endless bickerings prevail among the wives; 
while conjugal fidelity is unknown," and chastity is 
so far from being regarded as a virtue, that they have 
no term by which to express it. Envy, jealousy, 
revenge, deception, insincerity, and the most indis- 



80 PRESENT STATE OF THE AFKICANS. 

criminate profligacy have the countenance of uni- 
versal practice. 

Selfishness, absolute and lawless selfishness, is the 
master passion of their hearts ; — a selfishness which 
regards neither justice, nor humanity, nor decency, 
nor kindred, nor friendship ; — a selfishness which is 
universal, and which produces falsehood, theft, fraud, 
drunkenness, gluttony, and debauchery. There is 
no confidence between man and man. Every man 
must be the sole guardian of his own rights, his own 
interest and property, and defend them against the 
evil designs of all around him. 

Added to all these other sources of degradation 
and misery is the slave trade, especially the foreign 
slave trade, which is supposed to have existed for 
ages among them, but has been carried on with 
greatly increased activity (until within about fifty 
years) for the last previous three hundred years. 
Canot informs us that the practice of exchanging 
their slaves for foreign merchandize is so established 
among them, that " man^ in truth, has become the 
coin of Africa and the legal tender of a hrutal traded 
This is without a parallel, we believe, in the history 
of any other people, and shows the deep degradation 
to which they have sunk. They have not only en- 
slaved to themselves their own countrymen and kin- 
dred, and sold them as slaves to foreigners, but they 
welcome the slave trader to their shores, and in ex- 



PRESENT STATE OF THE AFRICANS. 81 

change for his cottons, rum, tobacco, muskets, pow- 
der, trinkets, and other such commodities, they pay 
Mm their own countrymen^ perhaps their nearest 
neighbors and kinsmen, whom they have inhumanly 
captured for this very purpose. They are indeed 
without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. A 
mother, for rum or for a few yards of cloth, will sell 
her child, and a husband will sell his wife. The 
inhabitants of one village, without having received 
any provocation, will attack at midnight the sleeping 
inhabitants of a neighboring village, and sell into 
slavery all whom they can capture, while they murder 
every one who resists them and destroy the village. 
Canot says that there were two towns at Digby 
governed by cousins, who had always lived in har- 
mony. He established a slave factory in the town of 
the younger cousin. This offended the elder and 
made the two bitter enemies. "They immediately put 
their towns in a state of defence, and kept sentinels 
watching by day and by night. About four months 
afterwards he visited the settlement of the elder and 
offended cousin, and was received with the greatest 
joy by him and his town, which immediately became 
a scene of unbounded merriment. Powder was burnt 
without stint; gallons of rum were distributed to 
both sexes, and dancing, smoking, and carousing con- 
tinued till long after midnight, when all stole off to 
maudlin sleep." About three o'clock in the morning 



82 TRESENT STATE OF THE AFRICANS. 

the sudden screams of women and children and vol- 
leys of musketry aroused him. The town was at- 
tacked by the younger cousin, aided by hushmen^ 
headed by a ferocious scoundrel, who, with his chiefs, 
were cannibals, " and never trod the war path with- 
out a pledge to return laden with human flesh to 
gorge their households." These savages rushed with 
shouts through the town, murdering every one whom 
they encountered. After the first massacre was 
ended and the day had begun, they assembled around 
their leader at the Palaver Hoiise^ and there was 
scarcely one of them who did not bring the body of 
some maimed and bleeding victim, who were tumbled 
on a heap in the centre. Immediately after, '' a pro- 
cession of women, whose naked limbs were smeared 
with chalk and ochre, poured into the Palaver House 
to join the beastly rites, each armed with a knife and 
bearing in her hand some cannibal trophy. Then 
came the refreshment, in the shape of rum, powder, 
and blood, which was quaffed by the brutes till they 
reeled off with linked hands in a wild dance around 
the pile of victims. As the women leaped and sang, 
the men applauded and encouraged." I forbear to 
transcribe his account of the revolting scene of lasciv- 
iousness and cruelty which followed.* Clarkson, in 
his celebrated essay " On the Slavery and Commerce 
of the Human Species, "f confirms the above state- 

* Sec Canot, ch. Gl. t Part 2, ch. 8. 



PRESENT 6TATE OF TnE AFRICANS. 83 

ment of the savage ferocity of their contests, when 
one town attacks another for the sake of procuring 
slaves. 

They seem incapable of forming themselves into 
extended political combinations, and this arises from 
the perpetual jealousies and strifes which exist among 
them, and their want of confidence in the integrity 
and ability of each other. " The only point in which 
the people of any one village are ever heartily united 
among themselves, is their extreme hatred to their 
nearest neighbors." They are unable " to see that 
the welfare of each individual is most effectually pro- 
moted by securing the rights and interests of the 
whole. As a general thing, they live together in 
disorderly masses, without law, without legislation, 
without courts of justice, and without any kind of 
security either of person or property." "Where they 
are ruled by despotic chiefs, their lives and property 
are absolutely at the disposal of these chiefs ; and the 
deeds of barbarous cruelty that are constantly perpe- 
trated by their commands are too revolting to be 
recited.^ The democratic form is no better. Univer- 
sally ignorant, without any moral restraint, and ruled 
by the worst passions whose sway is uncontrolled, 
they know not what good government is ; and it is 
doubtful whether a man in that country ever com- 

'^ Sec article "Dahouicy," in Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopedia^ 



84 ABOLITIONISTS. 

poses himself to sleep at night with a feeling of entire 
security. Contemplated from any point of view, this 
portion of Africa " presents little else to the eye of 
humanity than one vast continent of sin, misery and 
superstition." 



IV. ABOLITIONISTS. 



It is the custom of Abolitionists to represent the 
natives of Africa who were brought as slaves to our 
country, as a harmless and innocent race of sufferers, 
and our countrymen who now hold slaves as men- 
stealers: and astonishment has been expressed that 
the people of the United States have become " so lost 
to patriotism, philanthropy, and religion, as to ac- 
quiesce in the piratical conduct of a handful of their 
number, who have seized upon one-seventh of the 
men, women, and children of the land, and doomed 
them to perpetual, unrequited, brutal servitude, igno- 
rance, and heathenism."* 

Hard words these, and terrible if true. Let us 
examine them a little. 

It is not true that the Africans who were brought 
to this country were piratically stolen by their present 
owners or their fathers. They were enslaved and 
sold by their own countrymen. 

* Thirteeth Auuuul licport of the Am. and For. Auti-Slavcry Society. 



ABOLITIONISTS. 86 

Kor were the slaves who were brought to this 
country so unoffending as thej are represented to 
have been. Like their countrymen in Africa, they 
were debased, ignorant, and cruel idolaters. They 
approved of, and as far as they were able, practised 
the capturing and enslaving of their countrymen ; 
and if they did not capture and sell their captors and 
enslavers, it was not for any want of will to do so, 
but for want of power. The character and conduct 
of both the captors and captives among these Africans 
were so debased, and they so closely resembled the 
ancient Canaanites, that the wonder is that God did 
not doom them to extermination. Instead of this he 
permitted them, as the instruments by whom he pun- 
ished their crimes; to enslave and sell each other. 

The writer has just been reading a letter by John S. 
Kitchen, assistant-surgeon in the U. S. ship St. Louis, 
addressed to a gentleman in Philadelphia, published 
in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and republished from it 
in the New- York Spectator of June 5, 1856, in which 
he says : " After we left Cape Palmas we cruised in 
the Grulf of Guinea, long celebrated as the very source of 
the slave trade, and even now notorious for the tenacity 
with which the inhabitants cling to the remains of the 
traffic.'''' Again he says : " Many a dark tale could be 
told of the horrors of the lagoons of the Congo, and 
it will be many a long day before the struggling remains 
of the slave trade disappear from its shores.^'' What ? 



86 ABOLITIONISTS. 

when there are American and English ships of war 
ready to aid those nations, should they wish to de- 
stroy the slave trade from among them ? If traders ; 
for buying our sons and daughters should lie off our 
coasts, would we ask for a vessel of war to aid us in 
repelling them ? Alas I the wretched Africans seek 
to enslave each other, and welcome the slave trader 
among them. 

It is not true that our countrymen who now hold 
slaves are guilty of " piratical conduct " in " seizing " 
upon them. " The crime of piracy, or robbery and 
depredation upon the high seas," says Blackstone, " is 
an offence against the universal law of society ; a 
pirate being, according to Sir Edward Coke, hostis 
humani generis^'' an enemy of the human race. It 
will not be pretended that our countrymen who hold 
slaves actually stole them upon the high seas. We 
suppose that what is meant, is that their holding 
them is as criminal as if they had done this, and that 
they are " men-stealers," who deserve to be punished 
as if they were pirates. But according to Blackstone, 
a pirate " has renounced all the benefits of society 
and government, and has reduced himself afresh to 
the savage state of nature, by declaring war against 
all mankind," and therefore, " all mankind must de- 
clare war against him, &c." That is. Southern slave- 
holders are outlaws^ because they have piratically 
seized upon their slaves ! 



ABOLITIONISTS. 87 

But this is not true. Nor can it be proved even 
by implication, under tlie pretext that their fathers 
were men-stealers, and that they by inheriting them 
have given their assent to what their fathers did. 
The slave trade, abominable as it was, was yet a legal 
traffic until the beginning of the present century. It 
was only in the year 1807 that the British Parliament, 
after a most determined struggle of near twenty years 
against it, passed a law for the abolition of this trade. 
In the Convention to frame the present Constitution 
of the United States, the first committee to whom the 
subject of slavery was referred, and " the majority of 
which were from what are strong anti-slavery States j 
reported against any future prohibiuon of the African 
slave trade, but were willing to legalize it perpetually^ 
A second committee, *' a majority of which were from 
slave States, {then and now,) reported the clause, with 
authority to Congress to prohibit the slave trade after 
the year 1800. . . . This section was afterwards 
modified and adopted as it now exists in the Consti- 
tution, extending the time before which Congress 
could not prohibit the trade until 1808. Massachu- 
setts, New-Hampshire, and Connecticut, free States, 
and Maryland, North and South Carolina, slave 
States, voting for the extension ; New- Jersey and Penn- 
sylvania, free States, and Delaware and Virginia, 
slave States, voting against it." There were at the 
time of the Convention about seven hundred thou- 



88 ABOLITIONISTS. 

sand slaves in our country. The New- York Tribune 
remarks on the above facts as follows : " Had the 
New-England States voted against the extension, the 
slave trade would have been abolished eight years 
earlier, preventing the importation of more than a 
hundred thousand into this country, and there would 
have been at the present time a less number of slaves 
in the United States by at least three hundred thou- 
sand."* 

Thus the legality of the slave trade was admitted 
and confirmed by the Convention that formed the 
Constitution, which is the supreme law of our coun- 
try, and which, \vhile by Art. 1, Sec. 9, it gave 
power to Congress to abolish the slave trade, by Art. 
4, Sec. 2, confirmed the right of owners to their 
slaves under the law of the State in which they 
reside. If, then, the accusation of the Abolitionists 
against the Southern slaveholders is true, not only 
the Puritan fathers and patriots of New-England, who 
aided to achieve our Revolution, and their compat- 
riots of other States were guiltj^ of "piratical con- 
duct," but the very Constitution of our country legal- 
izes " piratical conduct" and " man stealing." Such 
arc the accusations which they bring against some of 
the purest and the most illustrious patriots and states- 
men that have ever adorned the history of a nation ; 

* Adams South Side View ot Slavery, 



ABOLITIONISTS. 89 

and a Constitution framed by their wisdom, and 
Avbich should be our pride and boast. 

A Southern statesman of high reputation, the late 
Hon. James McDowell, of Virginia, has said, that 
every one of the original thirteen States, at some 
stage of their career, have given the sanction of law 
to the very same slavery which now exists at the 
South ; . . . that " notwithstanding the bounties 
both of land and money with which it was the policy 
of some of your JSTorthern Legislatures, at an early 
day, to encourage the direct importation of the slave 
from Africa, and notwithstanding the mercantile ac- 
tivity and the high profits upon a large scale, which 
this importation is believed to have excited and re- 
warded, still the physical nature of the slave was 
such that he withered away under the rigors of your 
Northern climate, and soon dropped from your hands, 
a profitless and troublesome possession. . . What- 
ever the motives which prevailed in Northern eman- 
cipation, it is not to be forgotten that the South was 
a powerful auxiliary in having it accomplished. She 
was always ready to receive the slaves which their 
Northern owners found it profitable or convenient to 
dispose of; thus affording at that day, through her 
territories, the relief in this respect, which at this day 
has been denied so strenuously to herself; and thus 
stimulating emancipation in the North, by making it 
a source of trade and direct pecuniary gain. Your 



90 ABOLITIONISTS. 

incumbering and your profitless thousands of slaves 
were thrown off upon her, and the vast sums of 
money which were given in exchange, taken back to 
your own homesteads, have long since been incorpor- 
ated with that capital whose wonder-working prog- 
ress and achievements attracted to your enterprise 
the homage of universal admiration, and filled your 
whole land with monuments of science, and art, and 
philanthropy, and religion."^ 

If all who hold slaves are men-stealers, then those 
Northern merchants who imported and all those 
Northern men who traded in and bought and sold 
slaves were men-stealers, and those Legislatures, who 
by "bounties" encouraged the slave trade, abetted 
man-stealing ; and if the title of the Southern slave- 
holders whose fathers bought from Northern men their 
slaves, and so " received stolen goods, knowing them 
to have been stolen, is simply one of larceny^ no matter 
how many degrees removed, and can never, by long 
continuance nor by human laws, be made right ;" and 
if we must break church-fellowship with all who hold 
slaves, for this reason, then a new field of agitation 
and reform is opened for our Northern churches. 
To be consistent and act on principle, we must refuse 
church-fellowship with all who hold property that 
was acquired by the sale of slaves, no matter how 

* Lecture in Philadelphia in 1851. 



ABOLITIONISTS. 91 

long since it was obtained, since " tlieir title is simply 
one of larceny." Let us deal fairly with both, and 
say to the Southerner, Emancipate at once your 
slaves ; and to the Northerner, and especially to the 
Abolitionist, Eelinquish at once all the property 
which you hold which originally was acquired by 
trafficking in slaves. No matter how far back the 
title may go, it was originally acquired by receiving 
what was stolen, or money paid for what was stolen, 
and so "is simply one of larceny." The reasoning, 
we think, is as good in the one case as in the other ; 
but if it should be thoroughly carried out in action, 
it would shake society to its foundation. It is a 
sound principle of law, that '' what ought not at first 
to have been done, yet after it has been done and 
confirmed by the highest Legislative and judicial 
authority, must be considered valid and established ;" 
otherwise society would be constantly convulsed by 
civil contests. 



V. IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 



But it is asserted that slaveholding ought, as a 
heinous sin, to be immediately abandoned, and of 
course that all the slaves in our land ought to be at 
once emancipated. 

That slaveholding is not a sin we have already 
proved. If, however, the Abolitionist sincerely thinks 



92 litMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 

it is II sin, then he does his duty by not holding 
slaves. But he has no right to make his conscience, 
or prejudices or opinions the standard of duty to all 
other men ; especially when they are as conscientious 
as he is, and have diligently and even prayerfully 
sought that their consciences might be enlightened on 
the subject, and are compelled by their best judgment 
to believe that he is in serious error. Abolitionists 
have yet to learn that their sayings are not infallibly 
nor self-evidently true ; — that other men, and even 
slaveholders, have consciences, and rights of con- 
science which even abolitionists are bound to respect. 

Slaveholders in the south and south-west have a 
legal right to their slaves. The Law of God, the con- 
stitution of our country, and the laws of the respective 
States in which they reside, recognize, assert and 
guard their right. Will the abolitionist say that the 
Fourth and the Tenth Commandments of God's Law 
are unrighteous ? Will he say that the Constitution 
of the Country and the Law of a State ought to be re- 
sisted, even by force, because they sanction slavery, 
and so become a preacher of sedition and treason ? 

The nature and design of our government takes 
from the inhabitants of one State the right of inter- 
fering in the local affairs of another State. These are 
subject exclusively to the jurisdiction of each particu- 
lar State. What relates to the general interest of the 
whole nation is assigned to the General Government, 



IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 93 

whose powers are defined and limited by the Consti- 
tution, and our Union under the Constitution makes 
us One Nation. An attempt to break asunder the 
ties that bind us together as one nation is High 
Tkeason, and every American who loves his country 
will regard it with detestation. But each separate 
State has also its separate State Government, and 
" the powers not delegated to the United States by 
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 
are reserved to the States respectively or to the peo- 
ple." The Constitution has not "delegated to the 
United States " the power to abolish slavery : nor has 
it either prohibited or delegated to the States the 
power to abolish or retain it, but has left the whole 
matter to the legal jurisdiction of the separate States. 
"In Pennsylvania, slavery was abolished in 1780. 
In Kew- Jersey it was provisionally abolished in 1784 
— all children born of a slave after 1804 were made 
free in 1820. In Massachusetts it was declared after 
the revolution, that slavery was virtually abolished 
by their Constitution (1780). In 1784 and 1797, Con- 
necticut provided for a gradual extinction of slavery. 
In Khode Island, after 1784, no person could be horn 
a slave. The ordinance of 1787 forbid slavery in the 
Territory north-west of the Ohio, but the census 
shows that the injunction was disobeyed. The Con- 
stitutions of Vermont and New-Hampshire, respect- 
ively, abolished slavery. In New-York it was pro- 



94 IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 

visionally abolislied in 1799, twenty-eight years 
ownership being allowed in slaves born after tbat 
date, and in 1817, it was enacted that slavery was 
not to exist after ten years or 1827.*" 

The principle has heretofore been respected and 
acted on that each state is entirely independent of 
every other State in relation to this matter as well as 
to others of a merely local nature. If slaveholding is 
a sin, no non-slaveholding State is accountable for it. 
The inhabitants of Massachusetts are not accountable 
for the slaveholding of the inhabitants of South Caro- 
lina, or at the most, the only possible extent to which 
they can be considered accountable is that they are 
co-parties in a General Government which recognizes 
the right of individuals to hold slaves, when that 
right is given to them by the laws of the State in 
which they reside. But the establishment of the gov- 
ernment did not originate slavery. It existed among 
the States before their confederacy. Whether it 
should be permitted to exist was not even debated by 
the framers of our Constitution, when they formed 
that sacred compact which has made us the freest, 
and one of the greatest and most prosperous of the 
nations on the earth. Let us be thankful for the in- 
estimable blessings that this constitution secures to 
us ; and let us beware how for evils that do not im- 

* Compendium of Seventh Census of the U. S., p. 84. 



IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 95 

mediately affect ourselves, and the imaginary sins 
of others, we bring upon ourselves the guilt of sedi- 
tious stirrers up of civil strife, if not of foul treason 
against the noblest government, with the exception 
of the Theocracy of Israel, that has ever blessed 
mankind. 

By the census of 1850, the slave population in the 
United States amounted to 8,204,813, while the white 
population in the slaveholding states was 6,222,418. 
The abolitionists insist that all these three millions of 
southern slaves ought at once to be emancipated. We 
reply, that at one time, the laws of some of the slave- 
holding States did permit emancipation. But though 
the slaves were considerably elevated in their intel- 
lectual and religious character above their kindred in 
Africa, they showed themselves to be wholly unworthy 
to be trusted with freedom. They conducted so as to 
compel the States to repeal the laws that permitted 
their emancipation and enact other laws forbidding it, 
that the white population might enjoy security in 
their own persons and property, and the blacks be 
kept from the degradation to which the abuse of their 
freedom subjected them; for when they were made 
free, they only abused their freedom and sank deeper 
in laziness and crime. 

We reply again : — that if these three millions of 
slaves were all emancipated at once, the free States of 
the Confederacy would most probably, if not certainly, 



96 IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 

immediately enact laws prohibiting tlieir coming and 
settling with them, and so would throw them all upon 
the slave States. The necessary consequence of this 
would be the introduction of a state of affairs disas- 
trous to the white inhabitants, and ruinous to the 
blacks. Let us suppose that the emancipated slaves 
of the south were placed in the same situation as the 
free colored people are at the north ; that is, that they 
had become free men without the privileges of free- 
men — would this be a rich boon to them ? Though 
free at the north, they are shut out completely from 
social intercourse with us on terms of equality. 
What white families exchange visits with them, or 
admit them as guests to their tables ? "What white 
families intermarry with them and court their rela- 
tionship? In what houises of worship, or in what 
houses of amusement do they mingle together, and 
sit side by side with the whites, on terms of equality ? 
They are shut out from the privileges of our colleges 
and higher schools of learning. In many of our free 
States they are excluded not only from holding civil 
ofiices, but even from voting for the white men who 
shall rule over them. They are especially excluded 
from all high of&ces of trust and honor. Their voice 
is never heard in the halls of legislation, or in the 
courts of justice. They hold no military offices, and 
our sailors, and soldiers, and common day workmen 
would disdain to submit to them. 



IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 97 

Thus, though the colored people at the North are 
free, they are degraded and kept destitute of many of 
the strongest motives and excitements that affect the 
minds of men; that awaken self-respect and urge 
them to effort to elevate themselves. In theory it is 
asserted that all men are by nature free and equal. 
But should the free colored people presume on our 
honesty and sincerity in that profession, and claim an 
equality of office, and rights, and privileges ; should 
they set themselves up for members of the Legisla- 
ture, or Congress, or for governors, or judges, or for 
even the lowest offices, they would soon be most con- 
tumeliously repelled. 

They exist in peace among us because they are con- 
tent to remain in a state of inferiority and subordina- 
tion ; while the smallness of their numbers^ compared 
with that of the white inhabitants, prevents much of 
the evil which we might expect if they were more 
numerous.* This state of inferiority and degradation 
must exist until they are admitted to an equality of 
social intercourse and social rights, which cannot be 



* According to the census of 1850, the wliole number of the free col- 
ored population of the United States was 434,495 ; — of these, 238,187 
reside in the slave States, 196,016 in the free States, and 292 in the Ter- 
ritories. In the whole of New-England there are 23,021, and in the 
remaining ten free States there are 172,995. In Maryland, there are 
74,723 ; in Virginia, 54,333 ; and in North Carohna, 27,463. There are 
in the slaveholding States, 6,222,418 whites, and 3,442,500 blacks ; and 
in the free States, 13,330,650 whites, and 196,308 blacks, or 13,134,342 
whites more than blacks; while in the slave States there are only 
2,779,918 whites more than blacks. 



98 IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 

until they are admitted to intermarriage with, the 
whites. When we at the north are prepared for 
these things and when they actually exist among us, 
we may then with a better face complain of our 
southern brethren. 

But the condition of the South with relation to 
their colored population is very different from ours. 
The immediate liberation of their three millions of 
slaves would necessitate a change of government. 
For men to be capable of self-government, and of 
maintaining a flourishing republican commonwealth, 
they must be enlightened and virtuous ; they must 
be bound together by mutual confidence in each 
other's high integrity and love of their common coun- 
try. Where the masses of the community are igno- 
rant, irreligious, selfish, immoral, and addicted to low 
pursuits and pleasures, there can be no mutual confi- 
dence, and men are compelled to fly to the strong 
arm of a despot to protect them from each other. 
Nor are intelligence, civilization, and improvements 
in the arts and sciences sufiicient alone to make men 
free ; for if they were, France, and Italy, and Ger- 
many would be free. Immorality and a false or no 
religion debase men and unfit them for freedom. 
Subjection to servitude is the penalty which the Grod 
of the Universe has annexed to rebellion against him- 
self ; to the having of other gods beside Him, and to 
the rejection of his offered mercy and grace through 



IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 99 

Cliristj and we shall attempt in vain to annul tliis 
penalty. Both the moral and the physical laws by 
which the government of the Universe is conducted, 
are established by that great and Holy God who 
created the Universe, and the one operates as surely 
as the other. If a man cannot " take fire into his 
bosom and not be burned," neither can a man nor a 
nation forsake the true God, and turn atheists or idol- 
aters, and not be enslaved to despots or to masters. 
The true God must be acknowledged and worship- 
ped ; he must be feared, and his law must be obeyed. 
Men must be intelligent and conscientious Christians, 
in order that they may enjoy i\\^ blessings of civil 
freedom in their full extent, for since the very essence 
of civil liberty is government hy just law^ and since God 
has commanded us to be subject to the government 
and to obey its laws for conscience sahe^ it enters into 
the religion of every sincere Christian to obey the 
government and its laws, and where a community is 
Christian it will support goverment and obey law for 
conscience sake. 

Though the condition of the slaves of the South 
has been greatly improved above that of their coun • 
trymen in Africa, they are yet wholly unfit for self- 
government. Should they be immediately set free, a 
tremendous mass of ignorance and lawlessness would 
at once be thrown in the midst of our Southern 
brethren, and bitter hatred and resentment would 



100 IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 

spring np between the two races. Mutual provoca- 
tions, and insults, and injuries would be the conse- 
quence, rendering a strong government and strong 
laws necessary to repress violence and wrong. Prob- 
ably a war between them would be the consequence, 
ending in the overthrow and subjection of the blacks 
to a severer bondage than the present. 

The friend of the slaves will seek their intellectual 
and especially their religious elevation of character, 
and will hail with joy every attempt at this. This, 
however, can be effected only through the instru- 
mentality of the glorious Gospel of the hlessed God^ 
preached to the skives by the ambassadors of Christ, 
He has promised that he will be with them always, 
to the end of the world ; and the faithful preaching 
of " Christ crucified," will, through the accompanying 
power and blessing df the Holy Spirit, elevate the 
slave and fit him to be free. 



VI. CHARACTER OF SLAVEHOLDERS. 

The question of abolitionism bears on the character 
and conduct of our white Southern brethren as well 
as on the condition of their slaves. From the denun- 
ciations and clamors against them we should suppose 
that the masters, as a whole, are monsters of injustice 
and cruelty, and that the slaves, as a whole, are an 
unoffending, helpless race of sufferers. Nothing can 



CHARACTER OF SLAVEHOLDERS. lOl 

be more false. There are at tlie South cruel and op- 
pressive masters, who wantonly and wickedly abuse 
their power ; and there are too, wicked slaves, ■\V'ho 
are guilty of crimes that provoke the anger and even 
the abuse of power of other masters, who, but for 
their crimes, would have been kind. We are far 
from excusing oppression, injustice, and violence in 
any man under any provocation. There are wicked, 
and violent, and cruel men wherever men are found, 
and power when placed in the hands of such men 
will be abused. But we believe that in the South 
cruel and oppressive masters are the exceptions, and 
that in the general, the Southern masters are humane 
and kind in their treatment of their slaves. We 
should remember that they profess the same religion 
as ourselves, have the same Bible, keep the same 
Sabbath, worship the same God, and hear the same 
Gospel, and therefore we may believe that they have 
the same humane feelings, and act from the same 
Christian principles as we hope influence us. 

The following extract from " The Narrative of the 
State of Eeligion, by the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church, (0. S.,) met at Nashville, Ten- 
nessee, May, 1855, and addressed to the Churches 
under their care," shows that they are not unmindful 
of their spiritual welfare. They say : 

" The prosperity granted our Church has diversi- 
fied and increased the duties of our Church. Extend- 



102 CUAKACTER OF SLAVEHOLDERS. 

ing from tbe Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and from 
tlie Atlantic to the western ocean, in a large portion 
of our territory slavery exists. Nor has that people 
whom the Presbyterian Church found here in a state 
of bondage, been contemned for their degradation, 
nor neglected as to their spiritual interests. With 
scarcely an exception, the reports from Presbyteries 
of the South speak in Christian tenderness of this 
lowly, but far from undeserving class of our popula- 
tion, and of the efforts every where put forth to im- 
prove their social and spiritual condition. 

" In few, if any of our Southern States, are laws 
enforced forbidding that slaves be taught to read. 
Usually, as far as among any other class, Sabbath 
Schools are sustained for their instruction. In cities 
and larger towns the slaves have, and they prefer to 
have, their own churches. In rural districts and vil- 
lages our pastors devote a part of every Sabbath to 
their special instruction ; while on extended planta- 
tions every facility is offered for the preaching of the 
Gospel and other methods of religious teaching. 

" And we believe ourselves to be speaking the lan- 
guage of sober truth, when we say there are in our 
Southern churches thousands of slave owners, whose 
desire and effort is to prepare those whom an inscru- 
table Providence has cast upon their care, for a state 
of liberty and self-control which they cannot yet 
enjoy, and whose fervent prayer is that God would 



CHAKACTER OF SLAVEHOLDERS. 108 

hasten the day of safe and salutary freedom to men 
of every clime." 

We have not access to the narrative of the state 
of religion among other evangelical denominations of 
Christians in the South, but we do know that they 
all are promoting the religious welfare of the slaves, 
and we doubt not would make statements similar to 
those made by the Presbyterian General Assembly.* 

It becomes us at the Korth to beware of bringing 
false accusations against our Southern countrymen, 
and it especially becomes ministers of religion to 
guard against making such statements in the pulpit, 
and on the Sabbath. Their commission is to preach 
the Gospel, and happy will it be for them, and for 
the people of their charge, if they faithfully fulfil that 
commission. It is to be hoped that they will give a 
candid perusal to such writings as " The South Side 
View of Slavery, by ISTehemiah Adams, D. D.," and 
the " Ten Letters on the Subject of Slavery, by N. 
L. Rice, D. D." A minister of the Gospel should 
earnestly desire to be a preacher of truth and right- 
eousness only, and in order to his being such, he 
should as far as possible guard against every misstate- 
ment in relation to facts, or doctrines, or duties. 
Misrepresentation, wrathful denunciations, and the 
assertion of unscriptural principles of action, only 

* See Biblical Eepcrtory and Princctou Ecvicw for October 1845, vol, 
17, p. 591. 



104 CHARACTER OF SLAVEHOLDERS. 

injure the cause they were intended to serve. As a 
people we have loudly boasted of our rights — of 
natural and inalienable rights — but, alas! we have 
thought and said too little of our duties. Eights and 
duties are reciprocal. Too many base their theories 
of rights on a fiction that man is born out of society, 
independent of it, and not accountable to it, and 
assert that he therefore has a natural and inalienable 
right to freedom above all the laws of society. A 
heathen writer has taught us better than this. He 
says : " Jus hominum quod situm est in generis humani 
societaie^^ the right of men is founded in the social 
union of men.* The state or condition of a man in 
civil society is determined by his birth and the condi- 
tion of his parents, especially of his mother. Civil 
society is the appointment of God in which he de- 
signs men to live. " Let every soul be subject to the 
higher powers. For there is no power but of God. 
The powers that be are ordained of God." The law 
of the land does not for a moment admit the fiction 
that men are born or created out of society, and free 
from its rule. It reaches to the yet unborn infant ; 
it throws its protecting arm around our persons, and 
property, and legal rights, from our birth to our 
death. 
It is our boast that we, as a people, make the laws 



* Cicero, Tub. Ques., Lib, 1, 20, 



CHARACTER OF SLAVEHOLDERS. 105 

by wliicli we are governed. Let us remember that 
tliis lays us under the stronger obligation to obey 
them, and not only to obey them ourselves, but to 
insist that our magistrates shall enforce them, and so 
protect the law-abiding portion from the law-breaking 
portion of the community. Contempt for law, and 
licentiousness of conduct are fatal to civil liberty. 
That cannot dwell with lawless violence. The delib- 
erate violation or disregard of one great and just law 
will produce indifference to all law, and the attempt 
by private individuals or societies of such individuals 
to force their sentiments and views by violence, is a 
high handed procedure, which may lead to civil war, 
to revolution and anarchy, and possibly to the loss 
of our civil freedom. 

The Constitution of our country, which is our su- 
preme law, leaves the whole subject of slaver}' with 
each of the separate States. Let us leave it where 
that leaves it. Especially let Ministers of the Gospel 
remember that they are peculiarly bound by their 
sacred calling to show obedience to the laws and the 
powers that be, and let them in this respect, instead 
of following atheistical or infidel demagogues, follow 
Christ and his Apostles. Let us remember that the 
providence and purposes of God are now very imper- 
fectly understood by us, and that though to us obscure 
and perplexed, they are just and right. Why he has 
permitted the slave trade to exist, and why degraded 



106 CHARACTER OF SLAVEHOLDERS. 

and savage Africans were bouglit as slaves by our 
forefathers and so mingled with us, we cannot tell. 
But already he has brought great good out of this 
evil. The condition of the slaves is far better than 
that of the Africans from among whom they have 
been brought. Instead of debased savages, they are, 
to a considerable extent, civilized, enlightened and 
christianized. Their physical condition is greatly 
improved. "Whoever else may writhe and groan 
under want or debt, the slave feels neither and fears 
neither, he works on, sleeps on, whistles on (for he is 
the merriest of all mortals) just as if such things had 
no existence amongst the troubles of life." (M'Dowell) 
In many instances, he is the sincere though humble 
christian. 

But more than this, from among these slaves many 
have gone back to the land from which they were 
brought, and on the shores of western Africa, we be- 
hold — what had never been seen there before — a 
Christian Commonwealth — modelled after our own, 
having the same language and customs, blessed with 
churches and schools, and bibles and sabbaths, flour- 
ishing in commerce and the arts; and destined, we 
hope and believe, to christianize and civilize Africa. 
The blessing of God rest upon that commonwealth. 

Instead of rejecting and refusing to hold communion 
with those christian churches and those holy and de- 
voted ministers of the gospel, through whose instru- 



CHARACTER OF SLAVEHOLDERS. 107 

mentality many of these Liberians were converted to 
God, and who are laboring faithfully to promote the 
temporal as well as the spiritual and eternal welfare 
of the slaves among whom they dwell, let us rather 
aid and cheer them in their heavenly work by our 
benedictions and our prayers. Let us remember that 
they at least are free from oppressing their slaves ; 
that cruelty and impurity are no more tolerated in 
southern than in northern churches : and let us be- 
ware lest, like " the accuser of our brethren," (Kev. 
12 : 10.) we should be guilty of charging them with 
crimes of which they are innocent, and so bring guilt 
on our own souls, and give occasion to the enemies 
of Christ to blaspheme. 



VII. CONCLUSION. 



Two replies, in pamphlet form, have been published 
to the Argument of " Slaveholding not Sinful." The 
one by John Yan Dyke, Esq. To this my son, Henry 
K. How, replied in, it is said, an ably written pam- 
phlet, entitled (as was Mr. Yan Dyke's) "Slavehold-' 
ing not Sinful." The other reply is by Eev. H. D. 
Ganse, entitled "Bible Slaveholding not Sinful." I 
shall briefly notice a part of this reply. 

Mr. Ganse says : '' The argument of Dr. How is 
inconclusive to not a few minds, and for this chief 



108 CONCLUSION. 

reason, namely : the indefiniteness of its terms." The 
terms to which he refers are " slaveholding " and 
"slavery." (p. 5.) He "invites" us to make our 
" demonstration of the Bible's approval of slavery 
intelligible, by incorporating in it the Bible's defini- 
tion of a slave. We make the request, but it will 
not soon be granted. Not because such a definition 
is hard to give ; for we hold that when the Bible 
teaches morals, it teaches them clearly, but it would 
explode his argument like a bomb-shell. No system 
of modern slavery could stand before it for a moment." 
(p. 7.) 

Well, what is " the Bible's definition of a slave"? 
We had hoped that Mr. Ganse had been more fortu- 
nate than ourselves, and had found such a definition 
comprised in few and exact words that he would give 
us. But he gives no such definition. He says, how- 
ever, "such a definition we propose to offer." (p. 8.) 
So after all we must have Mr. Ganse's definition, and 
not the Bible's. Instead of giving the definition of 
slaveholding as recognized in the Word of God, he 
says : " Our information must be derived from one of 
two sources," either an " organic law of slavery," or 
such particular examples of slaveholding as the Bible 
contains. He explicitly asserts that the Bible does not 
furnish any such laiu. (p. 8.) He says : " The Bible 
then contains no organic law of slavery^ and the only 
warrant that slavery can claim from it is that of par- 



CONCLUSION. 109 

ticular examples. For we grant very cheerfully all 
that the argument before us can be thought to prove, 
namely, that slavery of some sort is countenanced in 
the Bible ; under the Old Testament hy express law 
establishing and defining a system of slaveholding^ and 
under the Kew by such general injunctions to mas- 
ters and slaves as at least tolerated the relation." 
(p. 12.) We are at a loss to understand what the 
author means by first asserting that the Bible contains 
" no organic law of slavery," and then that it does 
contain an " express law establishing and defining a 
system of slaveholding." His reply, however, we 
suppose will be found on p. 9, where he says that 
" the Mosaic law of slavery was an organic law for 
the economy to which it belonged, but no man now 
makes the code of Moses the rule of his slaveholding." 
(p. 9.) With all due deference we must dissent from 
this assertion. The Law of Ten Commands given on 
Sinai to the Israelites, includes the relation of master 
and slave in both the Fourth and the Tenth Com- 
mandments, and is of perpetual and universal obliga- 
tion. To deny this is to contradict Christ himself. 
(Matt. 5 : 17-19.) This law includes too the law of 
love : " thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," 
showing that a man may hold a slave in consistency 
with it. 

But Mr. Ganse boldly asserts that the terms " man- 
servant" and '* maid-servant in the Decalogue," can- 



110 CONCLUSION. 

not be shown by their etymology or their usage to 
contain the idea of slavery, (p. 9.) He says that he 
asserts and stands ready to prove this. Here again 
we are put off with mere assertion without proof. 
He asserts that " domestics, of whatever name, are the 
man-servants and the maid-servants intended in the 
Decalogue." (p. 11.) Suppose then that we admit 
that such domestics as we have in the free States are 
intended, and that the law means "thou shalt not 
covet thy neighbour's man domestic or hired servant 
or maid hired servant," we ask what is the meaning 
or correct appHcation of the law ? It evidently for- 
bids the coveting of what belongs to our neighbor, or 
of what he has a legal right to possess and hold. But 
he has no such right in a hired man-servant, and to 
give such a meaning to the commandment is in our 
opinion to trifle with the Word of God. 

But replies Mr. Ganse : "If any one is yet dissatis- 
fied, and insists that the Decalogue does give to slavery 
a standing license, surely it gives a man no broader 
claim to his slave than he can have to his cattle, and 
since the latter claim stands not by mere possession^ 
but by rightful possession, so must the former. If 
one were suspected of having stolen an ox, or of hav- 
ing received it after it was stolen, he could hardly 
arrest the investigation by quoting the words ' his ox ' 
out of the Decalogue, to prove that a man might own 
an ox ; and if a similar suspicion should arise in re- 



CONCLUSION. Ill 

gard to a slave, a similar quotation of the words ' his 
slave,' if the law contained them, wonld not bar pro- 
ceedings. Such an expression might prove a man's 
right to hold a slave, which we do not deny, but it 
could not settle summarily that man's right to that 
particular slave." (p. 11.) Here Mr. Ganse, while he 
admits that the Decalogue does "give to slavery 
a standing license," denies that it gives any more 
right to a man to hold a stolen slave than to hold 
stolen cattle. We hope that the abolitionist will re- 
member this important comment on this precept. 
He then admits that the expression "his slave" in 
the Decalogue, "might prove a mru.'s right to hold a 
slave, which we do not denyT This then settles the 
question. The Decalogue, it is admitted, though it 
does not give the right to hold a stolen slave, yet does 
give the right to hold a slave. 

How Mr. Ganse will "show by their etymology 
that the original terms for * man-servant ' and ' maid- 
servant,' in the Decalogue, have not the least hint of 
slavery in them," we know not. Gesenius gives as 
the primary meaning of the verb avad^ " to labor ^ to 
wor\ to do worlcP This will not enable us to get the 
distinctive idea of slavery, for the sentence of God has 
condemned all men to labor. (Gen. 3 : 19.) But our 
object is to know what sort of labor is that of a slave^ 
as distinguished from the labor of a free man. Mr. 
Ganse, happily for us, furnishes us with the distinc- 



112 CONCLUSION. 

tion. He says : '' Slavery, under the Old Testament, 
whether Patriarchal or Mosaic, was marked by two 
conditions. The first was that essential element of 
control on the part of the master, and involuntary obe- 
dience upon the part of the slave, without which it 
would not have been slavery at all." (p. 18.) We 
imagine that the abolitionists will not thank Mr. 
Ganse for his definition of slavery, if he intends it for 
a definition. After this they will surely renounce 
church-fellowship .with him, regardless of his skill in 
etymology. Here he gives the meaning of slavery. 
It means not merely lahor^ but compulsory lahor. We 
had thought that wo had given a sufiicient definition 
o^ a slave on page 10 of our pamphlet, where we say that 
he is ''a man who is not at his own disposal, but who 
is bound to serve and is the property of his master." 
This v/e insist is, to use Mr. Ganse's words, " the 
qualification of the term slaveholding or slavery, to 
designate the relation between Abraham and his ser- 
vants ; between the Israelites under the law and 
theirs ; between the heathen Eomans and theirs ; be- 
tween the early Christians and theirs, and lastly 
between our countrymen and theirs. There runs 
through all these relations " this one constant ele- 
ment." 

This is what we mean by slaveholding and slavery. 
That the Hebrew term eved^ in the Decalogue and the 
Old Testament, does not mean a free hired domestic 



CONCLUSION. 113 

or servant, is admitted by Mr. Ganse himself, from 
his acknowledgment that an essential element of the 
slavery spoken of in it was " control on the part of 
the master, &c." We shall now endeavor to prove 
that " Bible Slaveliolding " means " the legal holding of 
a man as property, in involuntary servitude, and com- 
pelling him to work without his consent, or any con- 
tract with him by his owner and master." 

First — The holding of the slave must be sanctioned 
by law. We would no more advocate the stealing of 
slaves or of men than we would the conduct of those 
deluded men from the Northern States, who, it is 
strongly asserted, have endeavored to stir up the slaves 
to insurrection, and to massacre their masters. The 
law of the land as well as the law of God must give 
to the master his right. 

Secondly — The slave is the property of his master. 
The Bible says so, the law of the land says so. The 
Bible says : " If a man smite his servant or his maid 
with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be 
surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a 
day or two, he shall not be punished : for he is his 
money ;" that is, that which is bought with his money^ 
his purchase. (Exod. 21 : 20, 21.) But can this possi- 
bly refer to hired free domestics ? These surely were 
not bought by his money, nor might he flog them so 
that they should die from the severity of their chas- 
tisement, and yet he escape punishment if they did 



114 CONCLUSION. 

not die within the space of a day or two after. The 
reason why he was not prosecuted was because the ser- 
vant or maid was his property, and he had the right 
suitably and not cruelly to chastise them when they, 
by their improper conduct, merited it. It is to be 
presumed, too, that a man, from a regard to his own 
wealth, and prosperity, and reputation, will not wan- 
tonly and wickedly destroy his own property, but take 
care of it, for his own sake, if from no higher motive. 
Again, God permitted and so made it lawful for the 
Israelites to " buy bondmen and bondmaids of the 
heathen round about them," and said, '* they shall be 
your possession : and ye shall take them as an inher- 
itance for your children after you, to inherit them for 
a possession ; they shall be your bondmen forever." 
(Lev. 25 : 44-46.) Such servants were not liberated 
at the Jubilee. Slaves then were property that could 
be bought, and sold, and owned, and beqiieathed as 
an inheritance. 

Another element that runs through the relation of 
a master and slave is the right of the master to re- 
quire and compel his slave to labor for and serve 
him. Of the Israelite, who because of poverty was 
sold to his Israelitish brother, God said : " Thou shalt 
not compel him to serve as a bond-servant." (Lev. 
25 : 89.) This withholding of the right to compel 
the Israelite to serve as a bond-servant, implied that 
the right to compel the bond-slave to do so was 



CONCLUSION. 115 

granted. Hence it is said of the bouglit heathen, 
(v. 46,) " they shall be your bondmen forever." Ac- 
cording to Gesenius, the letter Beth prefixed to the 
object of the verb gives to the verb the causative 
sense elsewhere expressed by the conjugation Hiphil, 
and then the words should be translated, " ye shall 
compel them to serve you." Our Lord Jesus has 
taught us that this right belonged to the master over 
the slave in his day. (Luke 17 : 7-9.) Gesenius gives 
as the third meaning of the verb avad^ " to make 
serve, to impose service upon any one ;" and gives 
the following references and examples of this mean- 
ing, Lev. 25 : 89, 46 ; Exod. 1 : 14 ; Jer. 22 : 13 ; 25 : 
14 ; SO : 8. He says that in Hiphil it means, " to 
cause to worh. to compel to labor, ^^ (Exod. 1 : 13 ; 6 : 5, 
&c.) Stockius, in his Clavis, defines the word to 
mean, '' to make to serve^ to reduce to servitude^ to force 
to servitude J to compel any one to luork for him^ to treat 
any one like a slave^ cruelly^ nay^ even in an arbitrary 
and despotic manyier. It has this transitive significa- 
tion both in Kal, Gen. 15 : 13 ; Lev. 25 : 39 ; Jer. 30 : 
8 ; 34 : 9, and in Hiphil, Exod. 6 : 15 ; Jer. 15 : 14 ; 
17 : 4." Gesenius defines the word eved^ commonly 
translated in our Bible a man-servant, as meaning, 1. 
primarily, a servant^ who among the Hebrews luas also 
a slave. (Gen. 12 : 16 ; 17 : 23 ; 39 : 17 ; Exod. 12 : 30, 
34, with other references.) Stockius defines the term, 
as " 07ie who is of a meaner condition, and who serves 



116 . CONCLUSION. 

another by labor and worh, whether he he bought hy raoney 
or 'captured in war ; that is a slave^^'' and refers to 
Exod. 20 : 10 ; Deut. 5 : 14. 

This, then, is wlaat we mean by slaveholding " the 
legal right of the master to hold and dispose of the 
slave, as his owner, and to compel him to serve him 
without his consent or any compact between them. 
This slaveholding, we say, the Bible permits, and 
therefore, is not sinful. 

It is proper to remark, too, that this is all we mean. 
The power to compel is not absolute, but restricted. 
The master is a man accountable to God — the slave is 
a man whose rights are protected by God. The na- 
ture and extent of the man's right to and property in 
any object, is limited to and defined by that object. 
His right in and over his wife differs in many re- 
spects from his right in and over his child, and both 
differ from his right in and over his slave, and all 
three differ from his right in and over his house or 
his ox or his ass. He has important duties to per- 
form towards his slave, as a man, resulting from his 
right and property in and to him, and the privileges, 
temporal and spiritual, which many of the slaves 
enjoy at the South, and the kind concern of their 
masters for their temporal and spiritual welfare, equal, 
we doubt not, those that were ever enjoyed under the 
Mosaic dispensation. 

We have endeavored to answer Mr. Ganse's first 



CONCLUSION. 117 

objection to our argument, and we hope we have suc- 
ceeded " in defining our terms." 

If we understand Mr. Ganse aright, another objec- 
tion is, that while slavery of some sort is counte- 
nanced "under the Old Testament, by express law 
estabhshing and defining a system of slaveholding, 
(p. 12,) that slavery was instituted solely for its own 
times," and for the special benefit of the slave, (pp. 13, 
14, 15,) and therefore our argument drawn from it 
fails. He says : " There is, and there can be, no 
identity or resemblance between the essence of Old 
Testament slavery and that of any other slavery that 
the world shall ever see. That slavery was in- 
stituted solely for its own times It began 

rightfully, in God's distinct command, and it blessed 
its subjects infinitely more than they could have 
been blessed without it ;" that " every slave, by the 
fact that he was a slave, was entitled to every reli- 
gious privilege of the new community into which he 
entered ;" and that there was as much kindness to the 
heathen as to the Israelites themselves, " in the pro- 
vision that some of these Gentiles, already condemned 
for their sins, should be made at once to render ser- 
vice to God's people, and to share in God's blessing." 
(pp. IS, 14, K.) 

"We confess that this presents slavery and slave- 
holding to us in a new aspect. We have considered 
slavery as an evil, and as one of the penal effects of 



118 CONCLUSION. 

tlie fall and wickedness of man. But Mr. Ganse 
teaches, if we do not misunderstand him, that it was 
a divine institution of a means of grace. He says : " It 
began rightfully in God's distinct command, and it 
blessed its subjects infinitely more than they could 
have been blessed without it." (p. 15.) It seems, 
therefore, that in those days enslaving the heathen 
was one of the outward and ordinary means by which 
God brought the heathen to the knowledge of him- 
self If so we cannot perceive what reason there can 
be why, if slaves are now, in our country, brought to 
the knowledge of God, and to participate in the ordi- 
nances and blessings of his covenant, it is sinful to 
hold them. 

"We remark, however, that the argument of Mr. 
Ganse is untenable with relation to the holding of 
slaves under the strictly Mosaic or Levitical dispen- 
sation. First — Because he rests the right of the slave 
to the religious privileges of the covenant on a false 
foundation — on " the fact that he was a slave." This 
fact, then, must be of universal application ; and the 
fact that a man is a slave must entitle him to church- 
fellowship and privileges. We think that the words 
of the covenant plainly show that the foundation of 
the rights of the slave is, that he was a human being, 
born in the family of the Israelite, and so a member 
of his household. 

Secondly — His argument is untenable because, in 



CONCLUSION. 119 

fact, they often did not at all obtain the benefits 
which he specifies. It was the duty of the Israelites 
to give them these privileges and blessings, and their 
slaves, by the command of God, had a right to them. 
But what became of their religious privileges during 
such fearful apostasies into idolatry as happened in 
the days of Ahab and other kings. Yet the law 
allowing the Jews to hold them as slaves was in force. 
God did not repeal it though it was sadly abused. 

We reply thirdly, that slavery is not represented 
as a blessing, but as a curse. This we have already 
shown. If it had been designed as a blessing God 
would not have forbidden the Israelites to make 
bond-servants of their brethren, while he permitted 
them to make bond- servants of the heathen; nor 
would he have so severely resented the conduct of 
the Jews, who, in the days of Jeremiah, compelled 
their brethren to continue in bondage longer than 
seven years. (Jer. 34 : 8-22.) 

We reply again, that Mr. Ganse errs greatly in 
representing the law concerning slavery in the Abra- 
hamic Covenant as part of the political law of the Is- 
raelitish nation, and ending with their civil polity.. 
This is not the doctrine of the Eeformed Dutch 
Church. That says in the form of baptism, that ''God 
speaketh unto Abraham, the father of all the faithful, 
and therefore unto us and our children. (Gen. 17 : 7.) 
(Sec the Form of Baptism.) Our church distinctly 



120 CONCLUSION. 

and fully recognizes the existence and authority of 
the Covenant made with Abraham, as giving to the 
visible church, first by circumcision and then by bap- 
tism, an existence and a form distinct from the world. 
In this Covenant, God dealt with Abraham as the 
" father of the faithful," and he designed that it should 
stand as His Covenant with his church through all 
time. Circumcision formerly, and baptism now, is 
the seal of this covenant and of its spiritual blessings 
which are to be received from Christ, in whom, as the 
seed of Abraham, all nations shall be blessed. Hence 
our form of baptism refers to Acts 2 : 89 ; to show 
that the promise of the covenant belongs to the church, 
now, and that children born in the visible church 
should be baptized as " heirs of the kingdom of God 
and of His covenant." Our argument is, that by 
commanding that every man child among the He- 
brews who was eight days old should be circumcised, 
whether born in the house or bought with money ; by 
permitting Abraham to hold slaves, and not only per- 
mitting, but "blessing him greatly by giving him 
men-servants (slaves) and maid-servants (slaves), (Gen. 
24 : 35,) God recognized and sanctioned slaveholding 
as not sinful. Mr. Ganse, however, says " there is then 
and there can be no identity or resemblance between 
the essence of Old Testament slavery, and that of any 
other slavery the world shall ever see. . . . That 
slaveholding was not sinful." (pp. 14, 16.) Now the 



CONCLUSION. 121 

slaveholding of Abraham was the common slave- 
holding of the country in which he lived, and was es- 
tablished and protected by the laws of the country. 
Mr. Ganse surely will not say that Abraham gained 
possession of his slaves illegally, and by violence or 
fraud. He will not accuse him of being a " piratical 
man-stealer." God says in his covenant, *' every man 
child in your generations, he that is born in the house 
or bought with money of any stranger that is not of thy 
seed." Here we learn that traffic in slaves and buying 
them with money was established in the days of 
Abraham ; we learn that the right of property, even 
of property in slaves was estabhshed and protected by 
law, that Abraham complied with the law and usages 
of the land in which he lived, and bought slaves and 
held them, and more than this, that the covenant con- 
templated the continuance of the buying and selling 
of slaves, for it says, *' in your generations." It was 
not as Mr. Ganse says, merely " the authorization of 
slaveholding in that particular instance." (p. 8.) He 
asserts this but does not prove it. The Bible does 
not say what he says. It says, " in your generations," 
and that the covenant is " for an everlasting cove- 
nant." In it God dealt with Abraham as " the father of 
the faithful," with all of whom he covenanted through 
him — Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apostles, 
Stephen and the martyrs, Calvin and the reformers — 
all received the sign of this covenant ; all its spiritual 



122 CONCLUSION. 

provisions and promises belong to the cliurch of tlic 
present day, and because of it we now have the Bible, 
and the ministry, and the Sacraments, and all the 
means of grace. But if in this covenant God " au- 
thorized " Abraham to hold slaves, he authorized the 
children of Araham, with whom he also covenanted, 
to hold them. He did not give a law commanding 
them to do so. We thank him that he did not. Had 
he done so it would have been our duty to hold slaves. 
He recognizes and sanctions slaveholding, but does 
not command it. 

The Decalogue was indeed a part of the law given 
to the Israelites in the wilderness, but it was not a" 
law for the Jews exclusively. It is binding on all 
men, and is the law of the covenant and of the church. 
Christ has ratified and explained it, (Matt. 5 : 17, 19,) 
and in the Fourth and Tenth Commandments it 
recognizes and sanctions slaveholding. 

The holding of slaves was sanctioned afterwards by 
special enactment, in the political law given to the 
Jews, defining what hind of persons they might hold 
as such. (Lev. 25 : 89-46.) It is to this, we suppose, 
that Mr. Ganse refers when he says, "We grant very 
cheerfully all that the argument (Dr. How's) before us 
can be thought to prove, namely, that slavery of some 
sort is countenanced in the Bible ; under the Old Tes- 
tament by express law establishing and defining a 
system of slaveholding." (p. 12.) The last part of this 



CONCLUSION. 123 

statement we beg leave positively to deny as wholly 
incorrect. The Mosaic law did not establish slavery 
among the Hebrews. The covenant with Abraham 
had recognized and sanctioned it " four hundred and 
thirty years before the law of Moses." If we are to 
seek for the beginning of the existence of slavery in 
the visible church of God, we must go back from 
Moses to Abraham ; from the political law given at 
Sinai to the covenant made in Canaan. Nor does the 
annulling of the ceremonial and political law of the 
Jews set aside that covenant. (Gal. 8 : 7, 8, 14, 17.) 
Nor does the Old Testament " cZe/;?e," that is, give an 
exact and full definition of the n;;;iire of the relation 
between master and slave, in i\6 details, and tell 
what elements are comprised in it. It uses the sim- 
ple term "bond-servant," as distinguished from "a 
hired servant." (v. 39, 40.) All the parade of Mr. 
Ganse about etymology, and usage, and forms, and 
principles, and elements, and essences, as applied to 
slavery, we consider as utterly futile ; just as much so 
as if we should use them in seeking to ascertain what 
the word man, or husband, or wife, or son, or hired 
servant meant. Slaves have existed from the remo- 
test posterity in almost every nation, and every nation 
has a term used to denote a slave. We have here- 
tofore thought that the term in the Old and New 
Testament has the old and established meaning that 
every where and at all times has been given to it. 



124 CONCLUSION. 

But we fire now told that in this we are mistaken ; 
that '' there is, and can be, no identity between the 
essence of Old Testament slavery and that of any 
other slavery that the world shall ever see." (p. 14.) 
This we take the liberty of most positively denying, 
and we do so the more boldly because Mr. Ganse 
offers no proof of it. 

We deny it, because the covenant with Abraham, 
while at the present day it recognizes and sanctions 
slaveholding, seals to the baptized child of the slave, 
when devoted to God in baptism by its believing 
master, all the spiritual blessings which it seals to the 
child of the mast', i-. Mr. Ganse confuses and mis- 
leads his readers by the inaccuracy and the boldness 
of his assertions. On p. 13, speaking of slavery 
under the Old Testament, he very correctly says of 
the slave, that he was "circumcised, he was instruct- 
ed, he was to keep the Sabbath and the feasts, and 
whatever hope of God's favor might grow out of 
these opportunities was as fairly open to him as to 
Abraham or any of his children." To this we assent ; 
and so at the present day the baptized child of the 
slave is admitted, like other children, to the promises 
and privileges of the covenant ; and ever has been 
since its institution. 

The law (Lev. 25 : 46-49) did not originate the 
right to slaveholding, it only restricted that right to 
holding the heathen as bond-slaves, while it forbid 



CONCLUSION. 125 

the making of the Hebrews such. This was its sole 
intent. The other political laws of the Hebrews did 
not originate the right to slaveholding, but " largely 
modified the authority of the master and the labors of 
the slave." If the question before us was whether 
masters have the right to abuse, and wrong, and in- 
jure their slaves, or if it was whether we should hold 
communion with churches that openly and avowedly 
allow, without censure, their members, who are mas- 
ters, thus to treat their slaves, we unhesitatingly say 
no. But here is the mistake of Mr. Ganse and the 
abolitionists. They represent American Slavery as 
a monster unequalled. Piracy, man-stealing, chains, 
groans, impurity, cruelty, nay, savage brutality, ev- 
ery opprobrious term that language can supply is 
indiscriminately heaped upon — whom? Why our 
Southern brethren and fellow-Christians — members of 
God's Church, who are conscientiously laboring for 
the temporal and spiritual welfare of their slaves. 
With such men, and not with irreligious and cruel 
men only, have many of our Northern churches re- 
fused to hold fellowship. 

Now if God recognized and sanctioned the holding 
of slaves by members of his visible Church, by his 
covenant with Abraham, and afterwards by his laws 
to the Israelites, regulating and limiting the right to 
hold slaves, and if, as Mr. Ganse says, the religious 
privileges which tlic slaves enjoyed by being brought 



126 CONCLUSION. 

into bondage among tlic Israelites, rendered tlieir 
slaveliolding not sinful, but a blessing to the slaves, 
tlien we contend that this argument applies with 
greater force to slaveholders in the American Christ- 
ian Church. It is a part of that one and the same 
old church to which Abraham and the Israelites be- 
longed, and under the same covenant. (Rom. 11 : 
15-22.) It, however, is under a dispensation of the 
covenant distinguished for greater light and privi- 
leges, and a larger outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 
All the reasons, therefore, that, according to Mr. 
Ganse, rendered slavery a blessing under the Levitical 
dispensation, go to prove that it is a blessing under 
the Gospel dispensation. If, as he says, " slavehold- 
ing began rightfully, in God's distinct command, and 
it blessed its subjects infinitely more than they could 
have been blessed without it," then the slaves at the 
South, under the Gospel dispensation, are placed in a 
better situation for acquiring the knowledge of Christ 
and salvation than were the Hebrew slaves. 

We see only two ways of evading the force of this 
argument ; the one by denying that the visible church 
of tlie present day is under the Abrahamic Covenant, 
and the same with the Old Testament church of 
which the patriarchs, with Moses and the prophets, 
were members. But to do this is to contradict the 
teachings of the Apostle, (Rom. 11, Gal. 3, Eph. 2,) 
and of the standards of the Reformed Dutch Church. 



COis^CLUSION. 127 

The only other way of evading the argument is by 
saying that because of slaveholding the Southern 
churches are so apostate as that God has rejected 
them, and that they are so under his curse that 
it is wicked to hold fellowship with them. To say 
this is to establish in the nineteenth century a new 
term of church-fellowship never before heard of, 
that no slaveholder can inherit the kingdom of God, 
and so flatly to contradict the Scriptures, and arro- 
gantly to usurp the authority of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, to whom only it belongs to make laws and 
appoint terms of communion in his Church. 

We have argued with Mr. Ganse on his own 
avowed principle, that Mosaic slaveholding was a 
blessing to the slave. It was so incidentally. But 
slavery, in itself, apart from all its connections and 
relations, is an evil ; is the penalty of sin ; is a result 
of God's curse. He mercifully, by his wisdom and 
his grace, sometimes 

" Makes the curse a blessing i^rove." 

Mr. Ganse objects that if " the connection of the 
rite of circumcision with slavery gives to slavery 
itself all the permanence of that rite, and of baptism 
which has taken its place, he claims the privilege of 
arguing similarly from the circumcision of Ishmael, 
which is said to have been by divine direction, (Gen. 
17 : 23,) and from the broad commnnd that included 
' every man-child in their generations,' and thus to 



12y CONCLUSION. 

prove a standing law of coilcubinagc and polygamy." 
(p. 9.) The idea of a law seems to haunt Mr. Ganse. 
Is there no distinction between a positive enaction 
and a tacit and implied, though real, recognition and 
permission ? no distinction between a precept and a 
penalty ? God has not given a law commanding 
either slaveholding or polygamy. Polygamy, like 
slaveholding, is an evil, and a result of the fall of 
man and his wickedness. It is, where it exists, a 
■chief source of degradation, and of many evils to 
both the man and the woman ; but especially to the 
woman, and is a gross abuse of the power which the 
man has over the woman. God permitted this evil 
to exist under his covenant, as he permitted, and as 
he now permits, some sins and errors to exist in his 
church, and in individual believers. But slavehold- 
ing is no where condemned as polygamy is, Mai. 2 : 
14, 15, where God complains of the cruelty and 
treachery of the Jews to the wives of their youth — 
that is, to their first wives, in divorcing them, and in 
taking other wives beside them. He calls their at- 
tention to the original law of marriage, as designed 
to be between but one man and one woman, for 
though God could have created many women, he 
created but one, to teach us that " every man should 
have his own wife, and every woman her own hus- 
band." (I Cor. 7: 2.) Malachi was the last of the 
prophets whose writings arc transmitted to us. lie 



CONCLUSION. 129 

lived near to the time of the coming of Christ, and 
lie admonished them that when he came he would be 
among them " as a refiner and purifier of silver ;" 
that he would require of them a closer adherence 
than they had shown before to his original institu- 
tions and commands, and among other things would 
recall them to the original law of marriage, between 
one man and one woman only. It seems probable 
that this reformation was effected even before the 
coming of Christ, for it is remarkable that no men- 
tion is made of polygamy, as an existing practice, in 
the ISTew Testament. The Apostle Paul speaks of 
marriage on the supposition that it signifies the union 
of one man with one woman, (Eom. 7 : 2, 3 ; 1 Cor. 
7 : 12-16,) and Christ expressly condemns both po- 
lygamy and divorce, and states the law of marriage. 
(Mark 10 : 6-9 ; Matt. 19 : 4-6.) When Mr. Ganse 
can produce any such plain condemnations of slave- 
holdmg, or show, that like polygamy, it was from 
the beginning excluded from the Christian churches, 
we will grant that he has proved that slaveholding 
ought not to be tolerated any more than polygamy. 

Another, and the last objection that we shall no- 
tice, is that no " such a thing is known or possible 
under the government of God, as authority commis- 
sioned to limit the advantage of its subjects. On the 
other hand, we maintain that the design of all lawful 
authority is to encourage and })rotect the extension of 



130 CONCLUSION. 

such advantage to its widest limits." (p. 62.) He 
denies the " master's right to extort from the slave 
any services for which the slave should not receive, 
in some form, a full equivalent ;" and he asserts that 
'' no government is entitled to a tittle of the goods or 
service of its subjects upon any other score than that 
of a just remuneration." (p. 88.) 

He distinguishes between what he calls *' the mere 
forms of slavery and the principles of slavery." The 
principle of slavery, he says, in the days of the 
Apostles, was as clearly defined as any idea could 
possibly be. " It was this ; that the master was the 
absolute proprietor of the slave." (p. 29.) We hope 
that he does not intend to evade the question of a 
master's ownership, by using the qualifying word 
absolute^ as if proprietorship " gave a right to take 
the slave's life and grossly to abuse him. Ownership 
implies no such right, and we take for granted that 
holding the slave as property is all that is meant, and 
that this is the principle of slavery which he says the 
Apostles " condemned utterly," and " left master and 
slave standing, not on any footing of abstract right 
and obligation, but of simple Gospel duty under the 
circumstances." (p. 29.) 

Another principle of slavery is, that it obliges a 
servant to labor involuntarily, " at the discretion o^ 
the master," or " for the master's benefit." This, he 
says, " all disinterested Christendom maintains, that 



CONCLUSION. 131 

the spirit of the Gospel is averse to." He asks indig- 
nantly : " What is this modern abstraction of ' slave- 
ry ' that presumes to dictate to the Gospel ? What is 
this, with its notions of ' the master's benefit ' and 
* the transfer of claims,' that it should stand up 
against the simplest law of Christ? The Apostles 
never heard of such a thing ; they never uttered a 
sentence, or a word, out of which the arbitrary notion 
could define itself." (pp. 83, 34.) 

In commenting on Colos. 4 : 1, Eph. 6 : 9, and the 
case of Philemon, he insists that these portions of 
Scripture prove that the master must renounce all 
ownership in and all authority over the slave, to com- 
pel him to labor for his (the master's) benefit, (pp. 
87-47.) Still he objects to the immediate emancipa- 
tion of the slaves at the South, (p. 52.) He says : 
" While we utterly disclaim the idea of ownership in 
a man, we admit the claim of service ; which stands 
by the very fact that the forms of slavery cannot be 
abolished, and which, by the conscientious care of a 
Christian master over one who needs that care, ac- 
quires the sanction of justice. Where slavery exists, 
the master who has done his full duty towards his 
slave, has a claim of duty in return." (p. 52.) He 
says that the fixed limits of all authority are ' ' the 
unrestricted advantage of its subjects." (p. 69.) 

We have, with much care and patience, endeav- 
ored to discover what Mr. Ganse means by " Bible 



132 CONCLUSION. 

Slaveholding," as distinct from slaveholding. As far 
as we have been able to ascertain, it means — 1. Tiiat 
the master has no proprietorship in the slave or own- 
ership of him. (p. 29.) 2. That he has no right to 
compel the slave involuntarily to serve or work for 
him. (p. 33.) 8. That for any services the slave 
must receive a full equivalent (pp. 35, 38) ; and 4, 
The holding of the 'slave must be, not for the benefit 
of the master, but for the unrestricted advantage of the 
slave, so that he may make " the greatest ultimate ad- 
vancement in property, and intelligence, and social 
and political position for which his own true energy 
and merit adapt him." (p. 64.) All this is what Mr. 
Ganse calls "Bible Slaveholding," and the form or 
forms of slavery without its principles. ISTow he has 
understanding to know that these requirements are 
utterly inconsistent with slaveholding, and if he in- 
sists that they all are requisite that slaveholding may 
not be sinful, then he virtually joins the abolitionist 
and contends that slaveholding is sinfal. 

To follow him in all his assertions and declamations 
would require more time and labor than it is conve- 
nient for us to give at present to the subject. He 
seems to forget that positive assertion is not argument 
nor proof, and as the proofs which we have offered, 
that slaveholding includes ownership and the right to 
compel involuntary service, (see Luke 17 : 7-9,) have 
not been directly met and set aside, we shall adhere 
to them still. 



CONCLUSION. 138 

As we have mentioned two replies to the Ar- 
gument of " Slaveholding not Sinful," we think it 
not improper to insert the two following favorable 
notices of it. The first is from a gentleman in Ken- 
tucky, who wishes his name to be suppressed. It is 
dated 

. . . , Kentucky, January 14, 1856. 

"The Address (Slaveholding not Sinful,) was perused by myself 
with many others, and we cannot refrain from expressing our hearty 
concurrence as well as warm admiration for your able exposition of 
Biblical truths, and the generous defence of your brethren of the North 
Carolina Classis. 

"The action of the Synod can but be deplored and deprecated by 
conservative men of all creeds and parties, as tending to weaken and 
disturb those fraternal relations, (both religious and political,) which 
have and, it is to be hoped, will still exist among the people of the 
different sections of our glorious but menaced Union. 

"No sane man can or will deny that Slavery in this State would 
long ago have ceased to exist, had it not been for those (unfortunately 
for our country,) pseudo-philanthropists — the abolitionists. In their 
insane zeal to abolish it, they have rendered it, doubtless, perpetual. 

" I am glad to say, it is highly probable that measures will be 
effected by our Legislature now in Session, that will greatly aid the 
friends of Colonization, in their noble and laudable efforts in securing 
homes for the blacks in Liberia, that country which seems best adapted 
to them by nature, and which is doubtless the only sane and plausible 
method to rid the State of a burthen to itself and them— the free 
blacks." 

The other is from E. Lord, Esq., the author of the 
" Epoch of the Creation," a gentleman of high repu- 
tation in the literary and theological world. It is as 
follows : 

Fiermont, February 19, 1856. 
" Key. Doctob Coogswetx, 

"Dear Sib, 

" It is but a few dnys since 1 borrowed 
from my neighbor. Rev. Mr. Cole, and read for the first time, a copy of 



134 CONCLUSION. 

Eev, Dr. How's Argument, " Slaveliolding not Sinful ;" and not knowing 
where I can procure a copy, I take leave to request you to send me one, 
if you can do so conveniently. It exhibits not only the right view, hut 
the best statement of the right view, of the subject, that I have met 
with. It is exceedingly creditable to the author, both on account of the 
matter of it, and on account of the christian fidelity and courage mani- 
fested in the delivery of it on the occasion, and to the body whom he 

addressed I hardly think that any thing has occurred of 

more evil omen to orthodoxy and orthodox churches, than the decision 
of the Synod. It teaches us that, in a representative assembly of an 
orthodox church, those who according to the scriptures, the confession, 
the polity, history and usage, are undeniably orthodox on the point in 
debate, are to yield and submit to those who from motives of prejudice 
or worldly expediency shrink from their duty, or directly set themselves 
in opposition. And this they are to do to prevent divisions, contro- 
versy, &c. If the orthodox are conscientious, they must, as a condition 
of peace with the heterodox, stifle their consciences ; in a word, in order 
to peace (such peace as is meant, and such as the world giveth) they 
must give up their faith and act with the heterodox. And if they are to 
do this on one subject, they may be called to do it on another. 

" The chief leaders of the abolition party already abjure and de- 
nounce the church, the ministry and the Bible. The aspects of the con- 
troversy indicate that ere long a division in all the churches, of those 
who adhere to the Bible from those who reject it wholly or in part, will 
be imavoidable: and then the course taken by the majority of the 
Synod will be better understood, and more justly appreciated than it is 
at present. 

" raithfully yours, 

"E. LOED." 

Mr. Lord having consented to a request for permis- 
sion to publish the above letter, desired that the fol- 
lowing postscript might be added : 

" B- S. — The true question respecting slavery, so far as the Bible 
and the religion of the Bible, in regard to discipline, communion, &c., 
have to do with it, is, whether the relation between masters and their 
slaves, is in itself, or in its nature sinful ? The question is not, whether 
men do commit or may commit sin in those acts by which they cause 
the relation to exist, by capturing, purchasing, or othersvise subjecting 
other men to their possession and control as slaves. If they commit sin 
in those acts, they are accountable to God, as for all other acts. But, 
whether in any or all cases they commit sin in those acts or not, does 
not afiect the question as to whether the relation, after it has been con- 



CONCLUSION. 135 

stituted, is in itself sinful. It is treated in the New Testament simply 
as an existing relation^ and in the Old Testament as an existing relation, 
and also in some other respects. 

*' Now, that the relation itself, wherever it may exist, and however it 
may have been originated, is not in itself sinful, and imposes on the 
■church no obligation to interfere with it, in a way of discipline, or to 
interdict communion with either of the parties to it, is demonstrably 
evident. 

"1. It is no where directly or impliedly treated as sinful in any part 
of the Scriptures. It is recognized and treated as an existmg relation ; 
and the parties to it are, in numerous instances, recognized and treated 
as in covenant with God and in fellowship with his people. 

" 2. It is recognized and treated as the ground of obligations and 
duties, which are binding on the parties between whom the relation 
•exists ; and special precepts, commands, and exhortations are accord- 
ingly addressed to the respective parties. 

" 3. It is in these respects, as a relation, and with reference to the 
obligations and duties of the church, precisely on a par with the rela- 
tions between parents and children, rulers and subjects. That the 
relation, in these two latter instances, is not in its nature sinful, must 
undoubtedly be admitted by every one. We are bound, by express 
precepts of the Bible, " to submit and be subject to the powers that be," 
and " to obey magistrates," because the powers exercised by rulers are 
ordained of God, and magistrates are his ministers. "Whether the men 
who rule are good or bad, tyrannical or otherwise, and whether their 
acts in attaining their positions of authority were or were not sinful, 
does not affect the question. When they have attained the power, the 
relation between them and their subjects is constituted ; and as a rela- 
tion, is recognized by the Scriptures, and made the ground of obligations 
and duties, to deny and resist which is treated as sin against God. 

'■'■ So of the relation between parents and children — wherever it 
exists it is recognized and treated as not in itself sinful, and as a ground 
of special obligations and duties. That relation may be originated in 
particular instances, and indefinitely, by acts, on the part of those who 
become parents, as sinful as the act of ' man-stealing,' or any of the acts 
by which tyrants obtain power and become rulers. But wherever the 
relation has been constituted and actually exists, the obligations and 
duties which grow out of it, and which are recognized and enforced by 
Scripture, prove that the relation itself is not sinful. 

" Without going further into the subject, I am clear in saying, that 
so far as we are to be guided by the teachings of the Bible, it would be 
quite as scriptural, quite as consistent, and quite as hopeful for the 
-church to exclude from communion all subjects of human governments, 
and all illegitimate children and their descendants, as to exclude mas- 
■ters and slaves on account of the relation existing between them. And 



136 CONCLUSION. 

T regard tlie vote of the Svnod as an evil omen, because it is ominous oi 
evil when the ehnreh imdertakes to improve upon the divine method of 
.■crovernincr the world, and to add to the Scriptures by enacting terms of 
commuuiou which they neither prescribe nor sanction. 

"E. L." 



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